Suspect admits receiving N12m ransom from kidnap of Okonjo-Iweala’s mother



A 27-year-old man, Peter Nweke, on Monday
admitted that his gang was paid N12 million
ransom when they abducted mother of the
immediate past minister of finance, Prof.
Kamene Okonjo, in 2013.
A statement from the Enugu State Police
Command said Nweke, a native of Umumba
Ndiagu in Ezeagu Local Government Area of
Enugu State, made the disclosure during
interrogation.
Nweke said he was contacted by one Ifeanyi
Chukwuemeka from Iselle Uku in Delta who
linked him to one of the Okonjo’s family
members that helped them to perfect the
abduction.
He said that Chukwuemeka disguised as a
corps member seeking for assistance and
entered the compound and made away with
Okonjo-Iweala’s mother.
Nweke also told the police that his gang
abducted a pastor’s wife and her friend as
well as their driver in Ugwuoba, Oji River in
Enugu State last October.
He said that they demanded N4 million but
later got N1.12 million from the victim.
The statement, signed by the spokesman of
the police in Enugu State, Mr Ebere Amaraizu,
said that the anti-kidnap unit of the command
arrested the suspect who escaped to Cotonou
after the kidnap of Okonjo.
The statement said that the suspect
resurfaced in 2015 with another gang which
included Ifeanyi Chukwuemeka and Ali Salli
from Adamawa, both residing in Sabon
Kashua, Asaba in Delta.
The suspect said that he had been in
kidnapping business for four years, adding
that poverty drove him into the crime.
“I needed money to acquire AK-47 and pump
action gun from one Musa from Adamawa at
Sabon Kashua, Asaba through one of his
cohorts, Ali Sali to make the business easier,”
Nweke said.
The suspect, however, pleaded for forgiveness
while advising the youth to shun crime as it
was an ill wind that blew nobody good.

NAN