Troops of Sector 1, Operation Pulo Shield, Effurun Nigerian Army
Barracks, last Thursday, acting on a tip-off, rescued a female senior
staff of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, at PTI
Junction, Delta State, from the hands of suspected kidnappers cum
rapists. EBENEZER ADUROKIYA reports the claims and counterclaims that
ensued during their parade.
The story of a 21-year-old boy, who comfortably rides on a Lexus car
worth N4.5 million at Effurun, tells more about a generation needing
redemption.
The young man, Mr Tadafe Egwolo, was last Thursday, arrested by troops
of Sector 1, Operation Pulo Shield, Effurun, along with his friend, Mr
Kelvin Uvwie, for kidnapping, raping and demanding N10 million ransom
from a 53-year-old woman.
The woman, who was allegedly raped by Egwolo at Room 602, Casa De Perdro
Hotel located at Effurun, last Tuesday, was subjected to a dehumanizing
state. She was, according to the senior staffer in PTI, at gun point,
picked up from PTI junction at Effurun and taken to a hotel room, where
she was stripped naked and violated in the presence of Egwolo’s friend,
Uvwie; who in turn, acted as a paparazzi. She was not only sexually
molested, but subjected to a bestial state of sucking the penis of her
traducer during the forced sex bout.
Thereafter, the mother of two, whose first daughter got married few
months back, was requested to produce N10 million in few hours or face
blackmail and/or death if she failed to concur.
The woman, while speaking with journalists on Saturday, said apart from
being a worker at PTI, she was a children’s teacher in one of the
churches in Warri, adding that she had never met the suspects before,
let alone having a romantic affair with them.
It was, however, gathered that apart from being single, she lived with
her two daughters before one of them got married few months ago.
But Egwolo, whose father said he was 21 and not 25 years old as earlier
claimed during interrogation by journalists, hinted that the case
between him and the woman, was one of love gone sour, over his unpaid
monthly salary arrears. The agreed monthly payment was N150, 000, for
bringing sexual satisfaction to the woman.
While giving the genesis of the relationship, the gigolo, Egwolo,
insisted, “I’m here because of somebody I’ve been dating for one year
and eight months. Her name is Jully Momoh (not real name). I’m 25 years
old and we met when I paid a visit to PTI. I was wearing dreadlocks
then, so she saw me and said that she liked me. She said that I looked
handsome and gave me her address, asking me to meet her in her office.
Before we started dating, she said she would pay me monthly and since we
started dating, we used to meet at different hotels.
“The last sex we had which turned sour, was at Room 602, Casa De Pedro.
Sometimes she would pay me between N1, 000 and N2, 000, but she later
promised to increase my payment,” he explained.
Egwolo, who claimed to be a Business Administration student at the Auchi
Polytechnic, Edo State, said he and his lover agreed on N150, 000
monthly for his services. According to him, the centre could no longer
hold when she was not fulfilling her own part of the bargain and was
rather promising him to wait till November this year, for his arrears.
Unsatisfied with the arrangement, Egwolo said he decided to set her up
by taking her to the hotel room while he had arranged with his friend,
Uvwie, to hide in the wardrobe and take snapshots of them. He said he
intended to use the photographs to intimidate her to redeem her pledge.
“Sometimes she takes very good care of me and she promised to pay me
N150, 000 per month. But she kept deceiving me every time I went to her
office and yet she still expected me to continue to please her sexually.
Later, I was worried and I confided in one of my friends on what to do.
So we agreed on taking snapshots of me having sex with her, as a tool
to retrieve the money from her,” Egwolo, who said he had lost his
fiancée to the incident, lamented.
Mr Uvwie, on his part, did not take part in the actual purported rape,
but joined his friend to take the snapshots of the sex scenes. He denied
ever being promised any amount for his job, claiming initially that he
was a student of University of Abuja, studying an non-existent course,
before he later said he was also into dredging, having finished studying
Oil and Gas in India.
Egwolo, however, begged for pardon while swearing before press men that
her victim was the first ever sugar mummy he had ever dated, appealing
to youths to beware of such fast business as the end may not be as
envisaged.
“I would advise Nigerian youths not to do such things, because what you
never planned for is what you would get. But I never wanted to blackmail
her, I just wanted to threaten her so as to get my money. I threatened
her that I would show the photographs to her children if she did not
give me my money. I did not kidnap her. She paid the hotel bill herself.
Though she begged me to wait till October to collect my money, I was
not ready for such bargain,” Egwolo affirmed.
Meanwhile, afraid of being blackmailed or even killed, after the
threats, the woman reported the case to the Joint Task Force (JTF) and
was asked to play along. The JTF laid an ambush for the culprits when
they came to the woman’s office at PTI to collect the ransom she claimed
they demanded and the suspects were nabbed.
Preliminary investigations, according to Commanding Officer, 3rd
Battalion, Nigerian Army, Effurun, Lt. Col. Otu, while briefing the
press after the parade of the suspects on Saturday, showed that the duo
had confessed to committing the crime.
According to Lt. Col. Otu, the suspects came in a Lexus car with
registration number; Delta EFR 02AA which belongs to Egwolo to PTI where
they were to pick up their ransom.
While informing that more investigations would still be carried out on
the case, Lt Col Otu gave other items recovered from them to include one
Blackberry, two Nokia phones and one LG phone, saying that the
suspected toy gun used for the action was yet to be retrieved.
He added that the suspects would be handed over to the appropriate quarters for prosecution after the JTF was through with them.
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