IT’S not easy to seize a prey from the mouth of the tiger, but that was exactly what the Delta Waterways Security Committee, DWSC, Warri, did, last Sunday, when it forced kidnappers of Mr. Ebikeme Clark, son of a former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, to unconditionally release him, four days after he was taken hostage in Kiagbodo, Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State.
THERE was an instantly recognizable vibrancy in the tone of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, as he spoke to Sunday Vanguard, on the release of Ebikeme.
His joie de vivre, it was later found out, had to do with the novel strategy deployed by the DWSC to secure the release of the victim.
DWSC, a security group, comprising former Niger-Delta agitators, youth leaders and professionals, is the first committee that Uduaghan inaugurated on assumption of office in 2007, to ensure peace and security on the waterways of the state, and provide intelligence to security agencies, among other things.
Uduaghan was understandably worried that Clark’s son was kidnapped and, given the information available to him, it was a matter that native intelligence had to be applied.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that Uduaghan, who insisted that no ransom should be paid, contacted the leadership of the committee and tasked it to secure the release of Ebikeme.
He said, “The committee has justified my confidence in it with the adroit manner it went about the rescue operation.”
Strategy that paid off
A top member of the committee said, “When the governor spoke to the leadership of DWSC, it was obvious to us that we must perform since the marshy terrain will be difficult for the police, the army and DSS to penetrate.”
He then narrated the strategy that rescued Clark’s second son: “What happened is that we first went on intelligence gathering to find out the people who carried out the kidnappin. We sent our boys in Ijaw axis to find out the gang that abducted Ebikeme and its whereabouts; the DWSC member said.
“Our machinery worked well and we got information on the gang, their leader, simply identified as Joshua. We arrested a member of the gang, who claimed he only participated in the planning and the man whose speed boat was used to whisk Ebikeme to the den of the kidnappers in the creek. They were handed over to the police and they made useful statements on the crime and their co-conspirators.
“Thereafter, we traced some of the family members of those holding Ebikeme in the creek. Our plan was to arrest more of their family members, but satisfied that we had them where we wanted them with the arrest of three suspected members of the gang, we called them on the phone number we obtained from their men in our custody that the game is up.
Linchpin
“It was in the course of investigation that we found out that the kidnapping was masterminded by the driver to an ex-militant leader in the Niger-Delta. He hails from Kalafigbene in Bomadi council. He was the one that provided the AK-47 rifle used for the operation.
“His boss did not know anything about his involvement until we informed him and he worked with DWSC thereafter.
“At first, they played hard, but when we made their members in our net to speak to them, they understood that we had gone ahead of them, as we threatened that if Ebikeme was not released in less than three days, we will go after their other family members.
“The gang thought we were bluffing when we told them we knew them and had some of their family members with us, which was why we made their loved ones to speak to them. I believe that was what weakened them.”
New tune
At this stage, the suspected kidnappers, the DSWC official stated, began to beg that we should spare their families and save them from going to jail, but we told them that they must release Ebikeme hale and hearty.
Release
“When the fear-gripped kidnappers dropped Ebikeme, they sent a message to the Vice Chairman of DWSC that they had dropped him at a location,” he said. “Following the text message, DWSC mobilized to Bomadi, between 1.00 am and 2.00 am. It was the committee that informed Ebikeme’s father, Chief Clark, about the rescue and he told us where to take him to.”
The official said the wife and children of the one of the suspected kidnappers, who were arrested by DWSC, were still in police custody on Sunday morning when the gang released Ebikeme.
“I am, however, pleading that police should release the wife and children because they had no hands in the kidnapping.
Mr. Dickson Bekederemo, a cousin and legal adviser to Clark, told Sunday Vanguard that the rescue of Ebikeme was the handiwork of DWSC.
He said a member of the committee contacted him in the early hours of Sunday that the kidnappers sent a text message to the effect that the victim had been released, adding, “I joined him and we went to Bomadi with a team of security to bring him.”
Ebikeme himself said he was astounded hours before he was released, when the kidnappers started begging him to forgive them and plead with government not to kill them or harm their families.
He spoke of how they tied his hands and legs, and took him to the high sea, threatening to throw him into the water because his father was “stubborn” and refused to pay them ransom.
Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, said his command was worried over the whereabouts of other members of the kidnap gang still at large.
“Other gang members still at large, according to him, include Timi, Abel, Ndamaw, and Jacob. “The suspects further confessed to being behind the kidnapping of one Madam Rose at Udu Road, Warri, from whose family they collected a ransom of N1.8 million,” Aduba added.
The State Police Command’s spokesperson, Celestina Kalu, who paraded the suspects on March 7, said one of them, Joshua Ogofa, was the master mind.
Another, David Emevor, a native of Kiagbodo, was said to have been “the Judas” who plotted the kidnapping as an insider. Ebikeme told Sunday Vanguard that the suspect kept tab on him for two months. Bosin Kevwe, a native of Aladja, allegedly provided the Audi 80 saloon car used for the operation.
Sylvester Dio, a native of Isaba in Ogbe Ijaw, Warri South West council, was said to have provided the speed boat. Pius Arhavwaren, a native of Olota in Ughelli South council, provided the motorcycles used for the operation.
vanguard
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