Ejiofor Alike
The chambers of a human rights, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has written the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to investigate an alleged complicity of police officers under the Delta State Police Command in a case of kidnapping.
In the letter dated May 3, 2017, Keyamo cited the case of one Prince Ovwighodua Odebala, a businessman, whose wife was kidnapped at Sapele, Delta State, on March 22, 2017 with the connivance of police officers and released on March 31, 2017 after a ransom of N5 million was paid by her family.
The letter, which was signed by the Assistant Head of Keyamo Chambers, Abuja, Mr. John Ainetor and a counsel, BI Dakum, further alleged that before the incident, one police officer, Mr. Ndifreke Ntafiong had forwarded his wife’s bank account details –Ann Onokurhefe with GTB account No. 0047238018, to Odebala, asking him to pay the sum of N1 million into the account.
According to the Keyamo Chambers, which are the solicitors to Odebala, the said police officer was notorious in that division for demanding monies with threats from prominent people in the area.
“Prince Odebala told him there was no reason to part with such a sum and the police officer told him clearly that if anything happened to him or members of his family in Sapele, he would be on his own. It was three days later that the wife of Prince Odebala was kidnapped,†said the Chambers.
Keyamo further told the IG that while Odebala’s wife was in the kidnappers’ den, the kidnappers, who had initially demanded for N40 million as ransom, informed the woman that her husband has so much money and that he even bought phones for his girlfriends.
“They mentioned the dates of the purchases. Incidentally, these are facts known only to one Joel Enajiro who was close confidant of Prince Odebala. It was then that our client suspected that Mr. Joel Enajiro (who was with him when he bought the said phone) was a party to the plot along with the police officer who threatened him,†Keyamo explained.
Feyamo stated that when his client reported the incident to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Sapele Police Division, the officer swiftly acted and took him to the Commissioner of Police, Delta State, who after hearing from the parties, simply directed Ndifreke Ntafiong (also known as Iwok) to go and release Odebala’s wife.
Keyamo’s law chambers noted that their client was amazed that even the police commissioner knew the involvement of this police officer in this crime but could treat such a serious matter with kid’s glove.
“Ntafiong was detained shortly and thereafter released. He then informed Prince Odebala to go and withdraw the complaint against him before his wife would be released.  Odebala declined to withdraw the complaint. bHowever, it was shortly after the release of Ntafiong, that the kidnappers called to reduce the ransom to the sum of N5 million, which was eventually paid,†the letter added.
Keyamo also told the police boss that when his client’s wife was eventually released, his client reported the matter to the police and one Mr. Vincent (a police officer) in the IGP IRT Unit in SARS Abuja was assigned to track down the kidnappers.
According to, two people involved in the kidnapping – David Adogbeji and Mr. Joel Enajiro were arrested and surreptitiously released with connivance of the Police Officers.
With the release of the alleged kidnappers, Festus stated that the lives of Odebala and his wife are now in danger.
