There were conflicting reports over the whereabouts of an Edo High Court judge, Justice Daniel Iyoboea Okungbowa who was declared missing on Thursday.
While repots said he was kidnapped on hi way to Abuja, very close to the heart of the city. The state police command said it was the case of a missing person, although no accident had been reported to it.
Edo State police commissioner, Mr. Foluso Adebanjo, denied that the judge was kidnapped, but that it was a case of missing person. “No, it’s not kidnapping, it is a case of missing person. He was travelling to Abuja and it was along the way he was said to be missing,” Adebanjo .
It would be recalled that the State Security Service (SSS) in Delta on Wednesday said it arrested five kidnap suspects, including Kelvin Obvrubie, who had been on wanted list of security agencies in the state.
The Director of SSS in Delta, Mrs Florence Ikanon, who confirmed the arrest in Asaba, said that Obvrubie was involved in many robbery and kidnapping cases in the state.
Speaking through her assistant, Mr Igbeji Didhcus, she said that the most wanted suspect was terrorising residents of Ethiope East Local Government Area of the state.
She said that the other suspects were arrested on Sept. 17 in a forest at Osubi, Uwie Local Government Area of the state.
The director said that they were arrested in connection with the kidnap of Mr Rufus Uzoma, a staff of Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) and Mrs Toyin Atoyebi.
She said that in the suspects had confessed to planning and kidnapping the victim on Aug. 10 in his residence at Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of the state.
According to her, the suspects collected N2 million as ransom from the family of Uzoma.
“Within the same period, the suspects also kidnapped one Atoyebi, who the command later rescued from them in the same Osubi forest,” she said.
The director said that items recovered from them included one locally-made cut to size gun, N819, 000, a mask and a Nokia mobile phone.
She said that the service had intensified efforts to arrest other fleeing members of the gang, adding that those arrested would be arraigned immediately investigations were concluded.