The State Security Service (SSS) on Thursday said it had foiled an orchestrated plot by a suspected fraudster and three university students to kidnap the two serving ministers.
The quadrant of kidnappers led by Abdallah Alfa (alias Ambassador), according to the Assistant Director, Public Relations of the service, Marilyn Ogar, had put final touches on the plot before they were nabbed.
Others arrested for the crime on September 14, 2009 are: Kingsley Njoku Obi (23), Aniabor Ochuko (27) and Chilaka Rowland (28), who are all students of the University of Abuja.
Specifically, Obi and Rowland are final year students of Political Science, while Ochuko is a diploma student.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja, Ogar said if the fraudsters had succeeded with their plot, Egwu would have been killed, while Kayode would have been released to the Federal Government at ransom of N300 million.
The spokesperson said the 58-year-old Alfa, who was mastermind of the plot, recruited students “ostensibly to make the exercise and the subsequent demand appear as if geared towards the Federal Government and ASUU impasse.”
She said preliminary investigation showed that the plot was to forcefully end the seemingly unending strike.
“While three of these are students of the University of Abuja, preliminary investigation showed that the plan was designed to serve as a forceful way of ending the ongoing strike action,” Ogar stated.
She also said upon the successful kidnapping of the ministers, Egwu was “to be forced to sign an alleged agreement with ASUU.”
Ogar noted that “however, part of the plot was to eventually kill Egwu, the minister of Education and release Kayode after the ransom would have been paid.”
She lamented that instead of an old man like Alfa serving a role model to the younger ones (students), he “cajoled them into embarking on the nefarious acts, thus capitalizing on their seeming frustrations and desperations to go back to school by all means.”
Describing the kingpin of the failed plot as “an incurable fraudster,” the service spokesperson advised parents and guardians to keep closer watch on their children and wards to ensure that they did not engage in acts inimical to orderliness and security.
According to the SSS, “the plan to kidnap the ministers was discussed in his Alfa’s house in Abuja. He, not only promised to sponsor the attempt, he initiated it. He recruited others and promised them the sum of N14 million with an initial payment of N4 million. While he hails from Dekina, Kogi State, he claims to be Hausa from Kano.”
She said the essence of the press briefing was to draw the attention of parents to the possibility that Alfa may have recruited other kids in different parts of the country for such criminal acts and to implore them to be vigilant.
She added that the service would hand the four over to the police before the close of business today for necessary action.
“We have done our bit, we will now hand them over to the police for prosecution,” he stated.
During interrogation of the suspects by newsmen, Alfa, who initially denied knowledge of any plot to kidnap the ministers, however, buckled and admitted to the crime. He said, however, that “the plot was hatched by the students even though I told them I won’t be part of it,” he confessed.
The students on the under hand admitted that the 58-year-old actually initiated the plot and brought them in. They said they were to be paid N14 million upon the successful operation.
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