Molly Kilete, Abuja
Officers of the the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team Monitoring Team (IRT) have arrested two suspects said to have threatened to kidnap staff of the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR) at Obumeze Community, Ahoada Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The suspects, LoveGod Chinuzioke, 27, an indigene of Obumeze Community, and Justice Okolo, 25, from Aniocha Local Government Area of Delta State, were arrested after they demanded a N20 million payment from the company on the threat of kidnapping their expatriate staff.
Daily Sun gathered that the suspects, operating under the name of Amalgamated Niger Delta Avengers, on several occasions sent text messages to one of the top management staff of the company, demanding that he pay N20 million or they would go through with their threat to kidnap the expat workers.
Police sources at the IRT office in Abuja told Daily Sun that apart from demanding the N20 million extortion, the suspects also demanded that they be placed on a monthly salary of N3 million.
They warned that failure to comply with their demands would be met with kidnap, death, vandalism/explosion and attacks on the company’s assets.
It was gathered that on receiving the threats, the company wrote a petition to the IGP, who immediately tasked the IRT team to go after the kidnappers.
During Investigation, it was discovered that the mastermind of the threat, an indigene of the town, had just been granted bail from Port Harcourt Maximum Prison for a case of armed Robbery and kidnapping, while his accomplice is said to have composed and sent the threat messages to the petrol company.
Both were subsequently arrested and the mobile phone used in composing the threat message recovered.
Police say efforts are on going to arrest the remaining accomplices still at large, and recover arms, ammunition and explosives in their possession.