Two brothers say they started kidnapping to retaliate their sister’s abduction

Police operatives in Enugu have arrested two brothers, Hyacinth Okeh and Fredrick Okweli, who claimed they were forced into kidnapping to avenge their sister’s abduction by the brother of their victim.

The suspects, who were arrested on Friday, July 19, 2019, are are from Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu, and aged 20 and 22 respectively.

While parading the suspect, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Ebere Amaraizu said the brothers were arrested after they allegedly kidnapped one Enejere Charles.

According to Punch, N187,000, two automatic pump action guns, charms and two single-barrelled guns were recovered from the suspects.

The two brothers confessed to the crime, adding that they kidnapped the victim because his brothers, Ogbonna Michael and Ezea Ifeanyi kidnapped their sisters and collected N600,000 as ransom from them.

One of the brothers, Okweli said, “I was arrested with my brother for kidnapping one man from our community. His brother abducted our sister and we kidnapped his brother in retaliation.

“We took our victim inside the bush and called his people to pay money before we released him.

“They paid the money but when we went to collect it at Ubollo-Afor in Udenu Local Government Area, the police arrested us.”

Okeh on his part said, “After the money was paid and we were going to collect it at Ubollo-Afor, we didn’t know that security operatives had set a trap for us.

“Immediately we got to the place, we were arrested and taken back to the bush where we hid the victim and the gun we used to carry out the operation."

He also said that they have never kidnapped anybody before, adding that they were forced to do go into kidnapping because Michael and Ifeanyi kidnapped their sister and collected money from them despite pleading with them.