Another
family has opened up on how celebrity criminal, Evans ruined their
family after the kidnap and the alleged murder of their father.
Evans, the kidnapper
When news broke that suspected notorious kidnap kingpin,
Chukwudubem Onwuamadike (aka Evans) had been arrested in Lagos by the
police on June 10, many people celebrated the security agencies that
made it happen.
But far less known was the celebration it produced in the compound
of the Iloenyosi family of Abagana, Anambra State. For this family, the
news of Evans arrest was a personal victory.
It all began one early morning on November 25, 2013 when the
patriarch of the family, Chief James Iloenyosi, was kidnapped on his way
back from mass.
His son, Chikelue Iloenyosi, former Super Eagles player who played
professional football in France and Turkey, has not been able to get
over what happened to his father. He narrated the event that quickly
became a game of hide and seek between criminals and the law enforcement
agents.
He told Saturday PUNCH in an emotion-laden tone that his father,
who was 86 at the time, was on his way back from their local Catholic
church when three SUVs double-crossed him and whisked him away.
He would never see his father alive again.
“When they took him away, they did not talk to us until after
five days. They phoned my twin sister. She was sobbing when she called
me that the kidnappers had made contact.
“When we the children gathered, my sister called the kidnappers
again and they simply told us that they would call back. They did not
call back until after another five days just to build our anxiety.”
Evans and late Chief James Iloenyosi
The N50m ransom negotiation
According to Chikelue, with no idea what could be going on with his
father, the kidnappers on the morning of the fifth day called to demand
a ransom of N50m.
The routine of begging and pleading for the reduction of the ransom
started at this point and after many days, they eventually reduced the
ransom to N15m.
Chikelue said, “When we paid the N15m, my father was already dead and we did not know.
“What made me upset was that despite how seriously we worked to get him back, my father did not come out of it alive.”
But upon payment of the ransom, the kidnappers said they were not
releasing their victim until the family brought more money. But they
never heard from the kidnappers again.
Breakthrough arrests four months later
However, after four months of investigation into the kidnap, said
to have involved hundreds of policemen in Anambra State combing the
forest at the time, security agencies got a break when a member of the
gang that kidnapped Chikelue’s father, a suspect known as Nonso, was
arrested along with three other members of his gang.
Chikelue said at the time, Evans was already a popular criminal
well known to the State Anti-Robbery Squad of the Anambra State Police
Command.
He was said to be a wanted robber known for hitting bullion vans.
“The SARS boss in Anambra told me at the time that any suspect arrested for any major crime always mentioned the name of Evans,” he said.
According to him, the family had to involve a private investigator
in the case at a point when there was no longer news about their
father’s whereabouts months after the family paid the ransom.
In addition to this, he said a friend of his based in Israel helped
to track his father’s line and traced it to a young lady, who said
Nonso was his boyfriend.
Chikelue told Saturday PUNCH, “When we arrested the girl, she
said Nonso only gave her the phone for safe-keeping, instructing her not
to put it on. We started tracking Nonso. At a point, the current leader
of the IRT, Abba Kyari, gave us 18 of his men to follow us to Cotonou,
Benin Republic because our trace on Nonso’s line showed he was there.
“We got there and the police arrested a young man, who said he
came to buy a car. He said the number was not his and that he only
wanted to use it to call somebody in Nigeria. The police had to let him
go when it was clear he knew nothing.
“Later we left the Cotonou guy. Again, our private tracker traced him to Lokoja, Kogi State.”
Evan’s gang member arrested in Lokoja
However, intelligence later suggested that Nonso was in Lokoja.
According to him, he and other members of the gang were said to
have relocated there immediately they shared the ransom because many
security agencies were after the gang.
Chikelue said after identifying the hotel the suspect might be
hiding in, some members of the SARS team in Kogi State moved in to make
the arrest.
He said, “I was in Lokoja for two months with a private tracker before we arrested Nonso.
“When we got to the hotel with the police that day, we
requested for the list of the people staying at the hotel. The hotel
staff mentioned a “small boy” with his girlfriend in one of the rooms.
“We knocked on the door and the girlfriend came out. He said
her boyfriend was in the bathroom. But I was hearing a sound inside. He
was trying to escape through the window but SARS operatives were already
stationed around the hotel.
“He eventually came out and said his name was Emmanuel. But I
knew it was him right away because we had been able to obtain his
photograph ahead.
“But because I did not want him to panic, I pretended it was
not him and told the SARS operatives in his presence that the person we
were looking for was an older man.
“He relaxed and was going inside when I called him and said I
wanted to ask him something. I dialled his phone number there and then
when it rang, we took it and it showed the name ‘Kidnapper football’. The SARS operatives immediately pounced on him and handcuffed him.
“I asked Nonso if he knew me, he said he did not. I told him I
was the footballer whose number he saved with that name. He then asked
if I was ‘General’ – my alias – and I said yes.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that as soon as Nonso was arrested, he became
submissive. He reportedly pleaded for his life, saying he would provide
any information the police needed.
“He immediately told us that his leader was Evans. But he said
there was no way we could get Evans because he had fled to Lagos after
the completion of the operation. At this point, Nonso kept our hope
alive. He said my father was still alive. He refused to give precise
information,” Chikelue told a correspondent.
The ex-footballer said he was very hopeful at that point and
believed he was indeed going to get his father back alive. Nonso, who
was transported back to Anambra in the company of SARS operatives later
provided the police with Evans’ phone line, with which they started
tracking him.
When the police team got to Anambra with the suspect, he reportedly
began to plead not to be taken to SARS headquarters in the state for
fear of being tortured and killed. He said he was willing to give up all
the necessary information.
Nonso told the police that Evans was always on the move after each operation.
Chikelue said, “We were calling Evans to pinpoint his location
but it was all abortive. Nonso was later made to call another member of
the gang called Awolowo to inform him that there was an operation.
“But Awolowo said he did not want to do any operation at the
time because his wife had just put to bed. Nonso said Awolowo was part
of Evans’ Asaba, Delta State group.”
Suspects refused to confess
The police later arrested Awolowo and two others.
For many days, these suspects were said to have kept mum. It was
learnt that they refused to divulge any information about Evans, which
the police suspected was owing to the fact that they had taken an oath.
In fact, one of the suspects, who was on the verge of confessing
was said to have suddenly started acting like someone with a mental
illness.
Even Nonso’s girlfriend who was also arrested was said to have
refused to give any information that could implicate her boyfriend.
“The most shocking thing was that when the police interrogated
Nonso, he said that if the SARS ever wanted peace in Anambra, they
should kill the lady. He said she was the one responsible for taking
care of the gang and that she helped them buy drugs and collected ransom
on their behalf,” Chikelue said.
But he said while all these were going on, his only concern was knowing his father’s whereabouts.
One day, while Chikelue was at the SARS office, he found a sudden
ally in an armed robbery suspect called Onyeso, who was detained there.
Chikelue said, “He pulled me aside and said, ‘My brother, you
are a good man because you always give money so that the police could
buy us food when you come here’. He said he wanted to give me a
privileged information.
“He said if we wanted any result, we should take Awolowo to the
backyard and tell the police to shoot their gun in the air as if they
had killed him. He said the other one would start confessing because
they had indeed taken an oath.
“When the police did this, Nonso started confessing when he was
told Awolowo had been killed. He said he would take us to where my
father was buried.
“We journeyed into the forest for three and half hours before
we got to where they buried him. I broke down and my sister who was
there at the time fainted.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the late Pa Iloenyosi was buried around
Nneyi village in Umueri community. But most heartbreaking was the
information that the old man might have been starved or beaten to death.
When Nonso was asked how the old man died, he explained that it was
the fault of those manning the hideout where Evans kept the man. Pa
Iloenyosi was said to have been stripped to his underwear, kept in a
cold room and beaten regularly in order to put more pressure on his
children.
Chikelue said, “While we were negotiating for ransom, they
would call and put the phone on speaker so I could hear how they beat
him. My father would cry and beg me to find a way to ensure his freedom.
“We buried him few days after we found his body and started the
search for Evans. One of the vital information Nonso gave us was that
they were on their way to a robbery when they got information about my
father and they diverted to Abagana to kidnap him. So, I was really
particular about the arrest of Evans so that he could tell us who in our
community gave them the information.”
Chikelue said he was the happiest man in the world the day he heard
Evans had been arrested. But he said he was particularly upset when he
read that Evans was begging for his life with the excuse that he had
never killed a victim before.
“What Evans did to my family was the most painful thing anybody
can experience. When I read he has been begging for sympathy, I just
laughed. The death penalty for people like him is the only solution.
Evans can never repent despite all the second chance he is begging for.”
Chikelue said the police were already aware of Evans connection to
his father’s kidnap and murder and are taking it into account in the
case against him.
Meanwhile, the Anambra State Police Command says it is liaising
with its Lagos State counterpart on the records of Evans’ past crimes in
the state.
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