For about a month after Agbulu’s kidnap,
the police investigation got no breakthrough as the kidnappers changed
location frequently in the forest to avoid being pinpointed.
Each time the police identified a location through tracking, the kidnappers would have moved.
The police eventually got a break in the case. When they tracked Agbulu’s
own line, which the kingpin of the syndicate had converted to personal
use.
“We tracked the line and eventually
located the suspect using it. When he was arrested by the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad and identified as the gang leader, he then took our
men to two other members of the gang.
The suspects were identified as Nuhu Musa (29), Caleb Moses (28) and Sanusi Jibrin (33).
“The suspects confirmed that they
belonged to the syndicate that kidnapped people in Lokoja. Anytime a
stranger came to the town and did not know the location, they pretended
to be okada riders looking for passengers.
“They then led the SARS operatives to
where the body of the lecturer was found in a shallow grave along the
Lokoja-Abuja Expressway. When the police got there, they realised it had
decomposed.
During investigations, the suspects
reportedly confessed to have kidnapped a second victim, Grace Ene
Onaivi, an Edo State indigene and 300 Level student of the Benue State
University.
Onaivi was declared missing on December 23, 2016 by her family members after they could not reach her.
The suspects told the police that they
had kidnapped Onaivi exactly the same way Agbulu was abducted with a
commercial motorcycle. They also dumped Onaivi’s body in the area where
Agbulu’s body was found few days prior.
It is still unclear in what way the victims were killed.
Williams told our correspondent that an autopsy would be conducted on the bodies to determine the cause of death.
The incidents have prompted the police in Kogi State to start a frantic effort to screen okada riders in the state.
The police spokesperson said the command was liaising with the state government to make a customised hat for all the okada riders in the state.
Williams said, “We are also working on a
centralised data through which we can trace any of the commercial
motorcyclists in the state at any point in time.
“We are also embarking on an awareness
campaign that anyone expecting a first-time visitor from outside the
state, should ensure the visitor remains in the motor park and pick them
there instead.
“We are also informing the people that they should not ever board an okada that has no plate number while okada riders who have not registered should do so immediately. In case of any incident, we would know how to trace them.”
He said investigation was still ongoing on the case as the suspects were cooperating.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities at FUAM, where Agbulu worked, Mr. Benigy
Anjembe, has described the death of Agbulu as a big loss to the
university community as a whole.
“One can only imagine the efforts her
family put into training her up to the level where she was on the verge
of obtaining her Ph.D.
“Imagine the agony she would have gone through in the hands of her captors before she was killed.”
Anjembe, who spoke with one of our
correspondents on telephone, said that the only way Agbulu could be
honoured was to prosecute the arrested suspects without delay so that
justice could be achieved.
He described her as a highly intelligent woman and an epitome of humility, who had no iota of violence in her.
Anjembe lamented that Kogi State had been in the news for the wrong reasons lately.
Read More at: The Punch
EmoticonEmoticon