Four persons parading as officials of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), have been arrested by the Akwa Ibom State Police Command, during an attempt to kidnap and collect a ransom of N150m from their victim.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Waheed Ayilara said the suspects include Emmanuel Augustine Akpayak, 27, Echem Ovurizichi Weneka, 27, Promise Udofia, 28, and Jeremiah Johnson Okon, 38.
He said the principal suspect, Emmanuel Akpayak masterminded the kidnap of the would-be-victim whom he owe over N12 million.
According to him, “Investigation revealed that Emmaneul Augustine Akpayak had arranged for the k!dnap and killing of the would-be victim by engaging men on arms and procuring EFCC vest/uniform for the Operation.
“Victim was invited and a search was conducted at the principal suspect’s house where four pairs of EFCC vest were recovered.
“Information at hand indicates that the suspect transacted business of selling cars with the would-be victim and owed the victim about Twelve Million Naira (N12,000,000.00), in order to evade the repayment of debt, the suspect hired armed men to k!dnap, extort the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N150,000,000.00) and also k!ll the victim thereafter but the Operation was foiled.”
In an interview, Akpayak claimed that the intending victim was his business associate whom he owed some money.
According to him, the victim hired “boys” that were issuing threats to him.
He noted that attempts to make his associate to come to a round table discussions failed hence he resorted to getting EFCC vest from an online vendor and gave to his gang members who posed as officials of the anti-graft agency to arrest the man and force him to bring N150 million as ransom.
The commissioner also paraded suspected advance fee fraudsters who have been swindling POS operators in Uyo metropolis and suburbs.
A statement issued by the Command said, “On 21/06/2024 at about 7:00pm, one Glory Uko Okon ‘f’ of Afaha Ikot Obio Nkan Village, Ibesikpo Asutan LGA, called in through the emergency hotline and alleged that one Donald Ita Nyong ‘m’, Rex Clement Uso ‘m’ and one Kingsley Mathias Joekim POS syndicates came to her POS stand at Udo Udoma Avenue Uyo, pretended to make withdrawal of N10,000 and while she made the withdrawal to the suspects, one of the suspect gave her N3,200 to deposit into an opay account which she tried three times and the transaction was unsuccessful, the suspects mounted pressure on her which made her to give out the POS machine to the suspect’s to type in the account number and before she could realize.
“The suspects had withdrawn the sum of N320,000.00 from her machine and quickly jumped into their waiting car and zoomed off. Suspects were arrested, they all made useful statements and have confessed to the crime.”
