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Written by Kola Oyelere
Saturday, May 1, 2010

When news of the delivery of a new grand-child got to Madam Keziah Umeh, she must have been beside herself with joy...

This news, coupled with the fact that she had not seen the new mum in a while, informed her decision to pay her daughter a visit. She packed her personal effects and a few local food items not readily available in Kano, where the new mum resides. Little did she know that she was embarking on a journey of no return.

Several days after she left, two young men paid a visit to the home of Innocent Chukwu Umeh at Egbe road in Sabongari on the pretext of rejoicing with them over the birth of their new baby.

They came in a Golf car and one of them went to the door and knocked. Initially, Mrs Ifenyinwa Okafor, one of Madam Umeh's daughters, was reluctant to open the door for the strange visitor.

According to her, "the young man came knocking at the door, at the initial stage, I didn't want to open the door for him, however, when he kept on knocking, I decided to open the door.

"I came down and asked him who he was looking for and he told me 'Mama', he was speaking the Igbo dialect of Anambra; he was stammering, holding a bottle of wine inside a nylon. I asked him who he was and he told me that he knew all of us; he even mentioned names of other members of the family. That was when I became convinced and I opened the door for him," the woman said.

The strange man told Mrs. Okafor that he wanted to see 'Mama' to seek her help in preparing for his wedding. During the course of their discussion, she realised that some of the issues the young man was talking about was better addressed by Madam Umeh, so she directed him to where she was.

"After informing him of her whereabouts, he assured me that he knew the place and he went on his way. I even congratulated him on his upcoming wedding; he smile and went away," the woman told Saturday Tribune.

She further said, "Immediately he left, I went to the corridor to peep, but I did not see him again. I climbed the stairs and tried to look for him and that was when I saw one Golf car parked very close to a church, I did not pay much attention to it, thinking that the car broke down and the owner was looking for somebody to assist him.

"Suddenly, the car just came alive and drove off at top speed. It never crossed my mind that it was the car the young man came in. I went back to my task of preparing my mother's dinner. That was around 5.00 p.m.,' she said.

Shortly after that, Mrs. Okafor's husband called to say he was going to see his in-law who had called for him. He told his wife that he would give her the details of the visit upon his return. He later informed her that those same young men went to her sister's place, pretending to have come to rejoice with them on the birth of the baby.

Okafor immediately left for her sister's place and there, she was told how the young men came to the house and after being entertained, left only to return later, saying they had forgotten their car keys. When they were let into the house, they were brandishing a gun.

"The men said they had been sent to eliminate all of them, and that was when my sister broke down in tears and started begging them to take all the money she had on her. Meanwhile, they had instructed my mother to lie down and they had tied the houseboy's hands and legs.

"Later, they covered my sister's mouth, tied her hands and legs and told my mum to go with them. As she stood up to follow them, she was staggering.

"She was taken out and we did not hear anything about her until evening, some minutes after 8.00 p.m. that same Monday. They called to tell us they wanted N35 million."

By this time the family had contacted all other relations and they started negotiating with the kidnappers. The family told the kidnappers that they could only afford N5 million. The payment modalities of N2 million now and the balance later were agreed upon.

The kidnappers directed Mrs. Okafor's sister to bring the money to an agreed location and warned them against telling anyone about the incident. The entire family was threatened that they would be placing their lives at risk if they involved a third party. They seemed to get the message loud and clear, a fact that prevented them from reporting the incident to the police or involving them in the negitiations.

Meanwhile, Madam Umeh had not been enjoying the best health as she was said to be diabetic and had suffered a partial stroke. In a bid to get out of the kidnappers' clutches early, she was said to have offered an additional N150,000.

After the money had been handed over to the kidnappers, they called to say that the old woman would be released the next morning.

They called again sometime later, telling them to come and pick the woman at a private hospital along Hadejia road. On getting to the hospital, the family discovered the woman had died.

The Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), SP Baba Mohammed Azare, while speaking on the matter, said the affected family did not inform the police while negotiating with the alleged kidnappers.

"They were said to have been playing along with them, which didn't allow the police to intervene. Had they informed the police, it would have been easy to arrest them while the negotiation was going on, but they were doing everything on their own without alerting any security operative over the matter," he said.