Police arrest 40-year-old woman for kidnapping, collecting money from husband

Ini Billie, Uyo

The Akwa Ibom State Police Command has arrested a 40-year-old woman, Mrs Joy Emmanuel Sunday for kidnapping and collecting a ransom of N2 million from her husband.

The woman said she was forced to kidnap her husband, Mr Emmanuel Sampson Ebong, an indigene of Ntak Obio Akpa in Oruk Anam Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State for starving her of sex and abandoning his children.

Sunday, who was among the 29 other persons paraded for various offences including kidnapping by the Police, stated that she was subjected to engage in all sorts of menial jobs to fend for herself and her children when her husband married another woman.

Speaking on Friday in Uyo, she added that the situation forced her to arrange for the kidnap of her husband to get money to take care of the children, but unfortunately, she was not given the ransom money after the abduction was successful.

She said: “I arranged for my husband’s kidnapping because for a long time, he had abandoned me with his children. Even when my father and mother in-laws were alive, he abandoned me. He never cared for his children.

“I engaged in menial jobs such as weeding in people’s farm to feed his children and pay their school fees.

“One of the children finished from secondary school and I approached my husband to plan how to send the son to learn trade since the father refused to send him to university but my husband shunned me.

“But the major reason is that my husband refused to have sex with me and does not take care of me and the children.”

She stated that the kidnapper that collected the ransom of N2 million vanished into thin air as he did not give her any share of the money.

“It was when the kidnappers were appropriating the N2m that the police arrested them and they mentioned me. They never gave me any part of the ransom collected from my husband.

“The kidnap kingpin (now at large) known as Udo Moji assured me that he would collect the money from my husband for me since my husband attacked me and poured away my soup in the pot.

“So, I agreed with him and he kidnapped my husband. I ran around to gather money to pay the kidnappers. The main suspect, Udo Moji ran away,” she stated.

The rescued husband, Emmanuel Sampson Ebong from Ntak Obio Akpa in Oruk Anam local government area, said he was kidnapped on July 21, 2022 in his compound.

Ebong stated that he just returned from treating an ailment when the kidnappers entered his compound and took him away, adding that he was fortunate that the Police came to his rescue.

Narrating his ordeal, Ebong said, “I came back from treatment because I was weak. Around 8.30pm, I saw about 6 people enter into my compound. They struggled with me and released two-gun shots into the atmosphere in my compound.

“They took me out of my compound in a mini bus and drove away. They kept me from that Thursday till Sunday and demanded N10m from me and later reduced it to N2m. 

“They took me me to Etinan where they caged me. I thank the Nigeria Police for the rescue operations because If not God, they would have killed me.

I also thank my Village Head. I don’t know the reason they kidnapped me.

“They collected N2m from me. The police later recovered over N500,000 from them.

Whil speaking, the Commissioner of Police, Olatoye Durosinmi said the police would leave no stone unturned to nip criminality and criminals in the bud.