KIDNAP: Drama As Female Suspect Tells Police She Was Wrongly Implicated
On Thursday, Nneka Opara, 32, said she was wrongly arrested and paraded by the Nigeria Police Force in Abuja on Thursday in connection with alleged kidnapping and armed robbery.
Opara was paraded alongside four male suspects at the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) unit of the Police Force in Abuja, for alleged involvement in luring a Swiss national to Nigeria while posing as an agent for gold transactions in Nigeria.
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The police spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi while reading the details of the case said Opara had accompanied the prime suspect, Emu Larry, and Samuel Balogun to the airport to pick up the victim.
Adejobi said the syndicate thereafter conveyed the Swiss national to a serviced apartment where they lodged him.
“Subsequently, Emu procured Babatunde Femi and Williams Banjo who tied down the victim and seized his iPhone while compelling him to contact his relatives in Zurich to send them the sum of 2000 dollars and threatening to harvest his kidney and sell if their demands are not met.
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“The suspects held the victim hostage in the apartment from May 30, 2023, to June 2, 2023.
“The suspects took pictures of the victim and forwarded the pictures and threat messages to the girlfriend of the victim in Zurich, who eventually sent them the sum of 2000 dollars via Western Union on June 1, 2023. Upon receipt of the report, operatives of FIB-IRT were deployed on the case and successfully apprehended the suspects,” he noted.
The prime suspect while reacting to the accusation, said he plotted with the rest of the syndicate to take back the agreed sum of $2000 from his Swiss national client who in the process of their transaction rescind their agreement. He also admitted to Opara being his “partner in business.”
But Opara appeared to have been dissatisfied by the police interpretation of the case as well as Larry’s presentation of the incident that led to their arrest.
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When given the opportunity to speak, Opara said she is only a music manager to Larry who is an up-and-coming artist in Abuja.
She said on the day of the incident, Larry had asked her to accompany him to pick up his client from the Abuja International Airport, instead of Bannex Plaza in the Wuse 2 area of the capital city where they had earlier agreed to go to.
“On May 30, he told me his phone was bad and he knows I have a phone plug. He told me to link him to my plug because the man will buy it well. I even sent him my phone plug’s number, as I was not ready to go out that day.
“He begged me. He said he needed me to go with him physically so that the man will buy the phone and I fell for that trap. He even waited for me for more than one hour in Mpape to join them, I thought he will change his mind, and finally I joined them.
“When I joined him, he said a business client he is expecting has already arrived at the airport. He begged me, that my phone dealer could wait so he takes us to the airport first (that is me) and from there I will now finally take him to Bannex to help sell his phone,” she revealed.
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Opara insisted in her public statement to the police and the press that Larry had deceived her into ignorantly conspiring with him to kidnap his victim.
Consequently, Adejobi said further investigation will be carried out on the development as Larry neither disclosed in his statement that he is a music artiste nor the nature of the relationship he has with Opara.
The police said they had recovered one locally made single barrel gun, one iPhone 13 Promax with air pods, five different types of company stamps, a stamp seal, an envelope containing documents, and five bricks of fake Gold.
