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The Anambra State Command of the Nigeria Police, on Thursday, revealed thatthe kidnappers of the wife of former Managing Director of NigerianBreweries Limited, Festus Odimegwu, and mother of the former Presidentof the Nigerian Football Federation, were paid a total ransom sum ofN104m.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Philemon Leha, told journalists in Awka, the state capital, that while Odimegwupaid N4m for the release of his wife, Stella; the former boss of NFFpaid N100m to secure the release of his mother, Hajia Laraba Abdullahi.

However, Lulu dismissed the police commissioner’s claim as falsehood.

Speaking on the telephone, he said the family “made conscious efforts to secureher release. The important thing is that she was released unhurt. Wheredid the police get that information?”

The CP, who was given account of his command’s activities in the past one year, saidthe suspects, who he said had been arrested, confessed to the kidnaps.

“While the three suspected kidnappers of Lulu’s mother said they collectedN500,000 each for their part in the kidnap, the alleged 65-year-oldkidnapper of Mrs. Odimegwu said he got N5m.”

The police also paraded the suspected kidnappers of the Anambra State Chairman ofthe Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu.

Leha said over the last one year, the police arrested 140 armed robbers andkilled 42 of them. He also disclosed that 130 kidnappers were arrested,while 22 were killed, and that the police rescued 16 kidnap victims.

He added that 96 vehicles were recovered, while a total of N6.6m and$3,000 were recovered from kidnap suspects over the same period.

Leha disclosed that 25 policemen were killed by armed robbers and kidnappers since January this year.

The commissioner used the opportunity to debunk claims by the Human RightsWatch that there were 350 police road blocks in Anambra State, each ofwhich the HRW said was extorting N20,000 daily from members of thepublic.

He said the police on the contrary had only 113 road blocks set up to checkmate kidnapping and armed robbery in the state.