Police Operatives of the Intelligence Response Team arrested two suspects for the kidnap of a medical doctor, Audu Benedict, his son and a family friend in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area, Benue State while travelling from Taraba state to Abuja on March 10, 2019.
The suspects, Henry Terkula – 25years – from Donga Local Government of Benue State and Terhile Tsavbe – 30years – from Gawa village, Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue state, were arrested on the 6th and 11th of June, 2020, following intense search for the victims and manhunt for the perpetrators by the Police team.
This was disclosed in Abuja on Monday by the Force Public Relations officer, DCP Frank Mba, while parading 26 suspects arrested for kidnapping, armed robbery, unlawful possession of fire arms and other criminal offenses.
Investigations revealed that the duo had collected N7 million as ransom from the families of the victims as condition for their release. While in captivity, the suspects forced the late Dr. Audu Benedict to issue them another cheque of N500,000.00 which they successfully cashed out in a commercial bank in Gboko town, Benue state.
“These are members of the syndicate that kidnapped Dr. Bnedict Audu, the son, Iranum Audu, and a family friend, Samaila, whilst they were on their way to Abuja. After they had collected a ransom of 7.5million naira, they still went ahead to kill the doctor, the son and the family friend”.
The suspects killed the three victims and buried them in a shallow grave at Gawa in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area, Benue state.
According to the confessions, one the suspects, Terhile Tsavbe, said; “I kidnapped the doctor, the friend of the doctor and child of the doctor, I collected money from the family of the doctor, 7 million naira. The doctor wrote another cheque for my oga, he gave the cheque to Terkula Gwa to cash, which is 500,000, making the total 7.5 million naira.
“They only gave me 300,000 from the money”.
It was revealed that the gang had also kidnapped a certain Veronica Abayi, and collected ransom but was lucky to be released. Incidentally, the victim is related to one of the gang members, who happen to be her brother.
“Veronica is my lovely biological sister, second child of my mother. She is well to do in our family. She has been paying our school fees from primary school to Kwara state university where the fee there is about 230,000 for Medical Laboratory students.
“We are 7 in number, she’s our only sister”, Terkula Gwa confessed.
