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A renowned hotelier in Lagos State, Mr. Collins Ubamachukwu Emeka, has called on the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, to ensure that the 19 suspects arrested for the kidnap of his cousin, Amaechi Ogonna, give information regarding his whereabouts.
Emeka, who owns Turning Touch Hotel in Oko-Afo area of the state, lamented that the suspects had been in the custody of the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Enugu, and yet did not disclose where they kept his cousin.
The hotelier explained that Ogonna was kidnapped as he came out from an hotel in Enugu State and was on his way to another place within the state.
In his words: “He was coming out of a hotel in Enugu, on his way to a place in Enugu, he was kidnapped. Till now, we have not seen my cousin brother. The kidnappers demanded for ransom and we gave, yet we have not seen him till today.
“We involved the police. Before we involved the police, the kidnappers put a call across to us and demanded for N17million ransom, which we paid them. After the payment, till now, they have not released our brother to us.
“The police have so far arrested 19 people in connection with the kidnap of my cousin brother, both the people that planned it and those that executed it.”
Emeka noted that his cousin was kidnapped since October 2021 and SCID- Enugu State was handling the case.
According to him, the people arrested have accepted being the ones that kidnapped Amaechi but refused to disclose his whereabouts.
He advised government at all level to seek the assistance of mercenaries in tackling the issue of insecurity in the country.
“Many hotels today are being affected with this issue of kidnapping in Nigeria. Most victims of kidnapping are been trailed either from hotel or home, bumper to bumper.
“Kidnappers now pitch camp at various hotels waiting for the victim. So it has really made us loose the patronage because people are now scared of lodging in a hotel.
“Today makes it almost six weeks that Amaechi has been kidnapped and those arrested have been arrested for almost five months. Some of them were arrested in November, December and January 2022,” Emeka posited.
The hotelier said he felt so bad to know that he is not secured in his own country, stressing that one cannot boast of sleeping in Nigeria with both eyes closed.
On his personal experience with kidnappers in the state, Emeka said: “Personally, I have witnessed a situation where I was trailed by kidnappers, right from my leaving an hotel in Enugu State.
“I noticed that a certain vehicle was coming after me, I speed up to a distance and the vehicle was still following me. They parked outside the hotel gate and as I drove out of the hotel, they followed me.
“They tried overtaking me but I did not give them the chance till I got to a police checkpoint and parked and they drove off. I reversed and went to another direction because of their way of monitoring me.”
He pointed out that kidnapping is in other parts of the world, not only in Nigeria.
“The only problem is that Nigeria’s situation is getting worse than other parts of the world. Kidnapping is fast becoming a tradition in Nigeria and some take it as business,” Emeka added.