HOW 21 YEAR-OLD KIDNAPPED,AND RAPED 53-YEAR-OLD WOMAN

Troops of Sector 1, Operation Pulo Shield, Effurun Nigerian Army Barracks, last Thursday, acting on a tip-off, rescued a female senior staff of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, at PTI Junction, Delta State, from the hands of suspected kidnappers cum rapists. EBENEZER ADUROKIYA reports the claims and counterclaims that ensued during their parade. The story of a 21-year-old boy, who comfortably rides on a Lexus car worth N4.5 million at Effurun, tells more about a generation needing redemption. The young man, Mr Tadafe Egwolo, was last Thursday, arrested by troops of Sector 1, Operation Pulo Shield, Effurun, along with his friend, Mr Kelvin Uvwie, for kidnapping, raping and demanding N10 million ransom from a 53-year-old woman. The woman, who was allegedly raped by Egwolo at Room 602, Casa De Perdro Hotel located at Effurun, last Tuesday, was subjected to a dehumanizing state. She was, according to the senior staffer in PTI, at gun point, picked up from PTI junction at Effurun and taken to a hotel room, where she was stripped naked and violated in the presence of Egwolo’s friend, Uvwie; who in turn, acted as a paparazzi. She was not only sexually molested, but subjected to a bestial state of sucking the penis of her traducer during the forced sex bout. Thereafter, the mother of two, whose first daughter got married few months back, was requested to produce N10 million in few hours or face blackmail and/or death if she failed to concur. The woman, while speaking with journalists on Saturday, said apart from being a worker at PTI, she was a children’s teacher in one of the churches in Warri, adding that she had never met the suspects before, let alone having a romantic affair with them. It was, however, gathered that apart from being single, she lived with her two daughters before one of them got married few months ago. But Egwolo, whose father said he was 21 and not 25 years old as earlier claimed during interrogation by journalists, hinted that the case between him and the woman, was one of love gone sour, over his unpaid monthly salary arrears. The agreed monthly payment was N150, 000, for bringing sexual satisfaction to the woman. While giving the genesis of the relationship, the gigolo, Egwolo, insisted, “I’m here because of somebody I’ve been dating for one year and eight months. Her name is Jully Momoh (not real name). I’m 25 years old and we met when I paid a visit to PTI. I was wearing dreadlocks then, so she saw me and said that she liked me. She said that I looked handsome and gave me her address, asking me to meet her in her office. Before we started dating, she said she would pay me monthly and since we started dating, we used to meet at different hotels. “The last sex we had which turned sour, was at Room 602, Casa De Pedro. Sometimes she would pay me between N1, 000 and N2, 000, but she later promised to increase my payment,” he explained. Egwolo, who claimed to be a Business Administration student at the Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, said he and his lover agreed on N150, 000 monthly for his services. According to him, the centre could no longer hold when she was not fulfilling her own part of the bargain and was rather promising him to wait till November this year, for his arrears. Unsatisfied with the arrangement, Egwolo said he decided to set her up by taking her to the hotel room while he had arranged with his friend, Uvwie, to hide in the wardrobe and take snapshots of them. He said he intended to use the photographs to intimidate her to redeem her pledge. “Sometimes she takes very good care of me and she promised to pay me N150, 000 per month. But she kept deceiving me every time I went to her office and yet she still expected me to continue to please her sexually. Later, I was worried and I confided in one of my friends on what to do. So we agreed on taking snapshots of me having sex with her, as a tool to retrieve the money from her,” Egwolo, who said he had lost his fiancée to the incident, lamented. Mr Uvwie, on his part, did not take part in the actual purported rape, but joined his friend to take the snapshots of the sex scenes. He denied ever being promised any amount for his job, claiming initially that he was a student of University of Abuja, studying an non-existent course, before he later said he was also into dredging, having finished studying Oil and Gas in India. Egwolo, however, begged for pardon while swearing before press men that her victim was the first ever sugar mummy he had ever dated, appealing to youths to beware of such fast business as the end may not be as envisaged. “I would advise Nigerian youths not to do such things, because what you never planned for is what you would get. But I never wanted to blackmail her, I just wanted to threaten her so as to get my money. I threatened her that I would show the photographs to her children if she did not give me my money. I did not kidnap her. She paid the hotel bill herself. Though she begged me to wait till October to collect my money, I was not ready for such bargain,” Egwolo affirmed. Meanwhile, afraid of being blackmailed or even killed, after the threats, the woman reported the case to the Joint Task Force (JTF) and was asked to play along. The JTF laid an ambush for the culprits when they came to the woman’s office at PTI to collect the ransom she claimed they demanded and the suspects were nabbed. Preliminary investigations, according to Commanding Officer, 3rd Battalion, Nigerian Army, Effurun, Lt. Col. Otu, while briefing the press after the parade of the suspects on Saturday, showed that the duo had confessed to committing the crime. According to Lt. Col. Otu, the suspects came in a Lexus car with registration number; Delta EFR 02AA which belongs to Egwolo to PTI where they were to pick up their ransom. While informing that more investigations would still be carried out on the case, Lt Col Otu gave other items recovered from them to include one Blackberry, two Nokia phones and one LG phone, saying that the suspected toy gun used for the action was yet to be retrieved. He added that the suspects would be handed over to the appropriate quarters for prosecution after the JTF was through with them.