Ogbaru LGA: Kidnapping, Crime Hotspot in Anambra State, Nigeria

Authority newspaper reports that communities in Ogbaru Local Government Area, Anambra State, South East Nigeria are in serious trouble as kidnappers and ritualists have in­vaded the area. It is so bad that kidnapping is almost a daily occurrence in the local council. Aside kidnapping, all sorts of crime also thrive in the zone.

The reason for the upsurge in crime rate in the area is not real­ly clear.

For instance, penultimate week, a hairdresser, Ruth Samuel, 22, from Akwa lbom state, was ar­rested by Atani Vigilante Group in one of the communities in Ogba­ru for selling her female child for N150,000 to one Dr Ernest (sur­name withheld).

 

Earnest is based in Nkpor, lde­mili North local council area.

 

On interrogation, Ruth was lost and could not remember ei­ther the surname or the name of the hospital of her accomplice.

 

According to her: “l don’t know the doctor’s surname or name of his hospital but l know the place.”

Ruth, further disclosed that one Miss Amaka, from Agbor, Delta State though based in Onyu-Atani, introduced her to Dr Ernest in Nkpor.

 

Before that, one Ebere Eze, a middle-aged woman and child were allegedly abducted by one Chukwudum Uzokwe but the vigilante group in the communi­ty foiled the attempt.

Uzokwe later confessed to the crime.

 

The same Chukwudum and his gang allegedly kidnapped Mrs Ngozi Okoro and her three chil­dren from Uga Junction, Onitsha and took refuge in Ogbaru, Ata­ni precisely before luck ran out on them.

Mrs Ngozi Okoro is a beggar.

 

Mrs Anurika Agha also had her two children abducted. The same week, one Chidiebere was attacked by cultists over power tussle.

 

The PPRO, CSP Okechukwu Ali, confirmed that the kidnap­pers have been rounded up and are waiting to be arraigned.

 

Trouble started when the kid­nappers lured the beggar, Mrs Okoro from Adani with a promise to assist her only to tie her up near a local pond at Atani before a wine tapper saw her and rescued her.

She was to be used for a ritual and her children sold off.

 

When the palm wine tapper released her, she went straight to a police station to report and as she was doing that, her kidnap­pers were busy negotiating on the amount to collect for the sale of her babies via public mobile phone centre and passersby overheard them and equally alerted vigilante men in Atani.

 

They were rounded up and handed over to the police as con­firmed by the PPRO, Ali who said they would soon be arraigned in court.

 

Unofficial sources said one Nwike Ogden and Chukwudum are now helping the police with information, even as one Nwike is said to be their motivational strat­egist.

 

But on Thursday, the police woke up from its slumber and went after some suspected armed rob­bery and kidnapping suspects at different places in the state.

 

It paid off as the police paraded nine suspects at Awkuzu, the head­quarters of the Special Anti-Rob­bery Squad (SARS) of the police command.

 

Only God can tell when Ogb­aru residents can sleep with their eyes closed.