Edo police arrest twin brothers for kidnapping

Two brothers, identified as Stephen Odion and Stephen Akhere,‎ both 26 years old, have been arrested by the Edo State Command of the Nigeria Police for alleged kidnapping.

The suspects, along with one Stephen Ehikioya, 33, suspected to be the older brother of the twin‎s, were said to have ambushed one Alfred Ehikioya along Era-Ekpoma road, shot him in the leg and kept him in a forest for four days.

The abductors were said‎ to have released their victim after receiving a ransom of N500,000 from his relatives.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Samuel Adegbuyi, who paraded the brothers in Benin, along with other suspects arrested for various criminal offences‎, said the suspected kidnappers and others at large had earlier abducted an evangelist, who was later released after the payment of N1 million.

Adegbuyi noted that they also attempted to abduct a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police.

He also added that the police recovered one Qlink motorcycle marked “URU DFD QD” and a Toyota Dianna Truck with number plate NZM 425 XZ.

The CP said, “After their arrest, investigation revealed that the suspects had on January 11, 2015, attempted to kidnap one Inegbedion Peter ACP (retd.) whom, while escaping from their attack, sustained a gunshot injury on his hands from the kidnappers.”

However, one of the twins, ‎Akhere, explained that he was lured into the crime by another man whom he could not identify.

“Since I was born, I couldn’t afford to go to school. I  was working as a labourer at Ugba‎ when a man deceived me into the act.

“When I got home, I told my brother about it; I told him that we would do it only once and stop. In our first attempt, we were successful and got some money from it‎.

“We were four in the group and we got N1 million in ‎total as ransom. But my brother and I got N500,000 and bought a vehicle with my share.

“It was in our second attempt that we were caught in a farm. The double-barrel gun we used was given to us by someone who got it from his father. But we couldn’t fin‎d him when we went to return it,” he said.

Among others paraded by the police chief were three armed robbery suspects,‎ two murder suspects and seven suspected kidnappers, while four persons were arrested for alleged rape.

‎CP Adegbuyi, however, added that the suspects would be prosecuted according to the law, at the end of investigations.