On Saturday,
February 16, 2013, Henry Chibueze, a notorious kidnapper terrorizing
South East and South South parts of the country, stormed the home of his
girlfriend, Sandra Ijedinma, at Igando area of Lagos State, with an
AK47 assault rifle and opened fire on everyone present in the apartment,
killing his girlfriend, her elder sister Praise Ozor, and her two
children.
Not satisfied, Henry proceeded to a nearby street where one of Sandra’s
elder sisters resided and killed the woman and three of her children,
before fleeing.
His anger was said to have been that Sandra, who was an optician with
Madonna University, had called off their relationship, when she learnt
that he was a kidnapper. Sandra’s twin sister, Katherine who sustained a
bullet would during the attack had told vanguard in 2013 that the
assailant was familiar with everyone in their family but nobody knew he
was a kidnapper .
She explained that her late sister used to visit Henry at his base in
Delta State and in one of such visits, some heavily armed men stormed
Henry’s apartment, manhandling Sandra in the process.
She added that the armed men reportedly told Sandra that her lover
absconded with their share of a ransom paid to them for one of their
kidnapping exploits, threatening to wipe out all his (Henry’s) family
members if he did not pay them. Thereafter, Sandra informed her family
members in Lagos of what had happened and they rushed to Delta State to
bring her to Lagos for proper treatment. But while she was receiving the
treatment, she called off the relationship and Henry; feeling betrayed,
stormed their Lagos home and killed people while Katherine narrowly
escaped death...
The police in Lagos went all out in search of Henry. Vanguard gathered
that operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, who were then
headed by Sp Abba Kyari, trailed him to Abia, Delta and Rivers State,
where they rounded up some of his close friends, relatives and seven
members of his gang who were behind the kidnap of a British national,
Diction Lee, few minutes after the Briton arrived at the country. They
kidnapped him on Airport Road, Ikeja. At that point, it was established
that Henry had escaped from the country and was based in Ivory Coast....
But while the search for him went cold in Lagos, Henry, was said to have
regrouped with his gang in Imo State and they coordinated several
kidnappings in the South East and South South, where he kidnapped over
200 persons, killing most of his victims, including the wife of a royal
father in Imo State and an official of the Imo State Environmental
Transformation Commission which yielded him N50m ransom.
However, luck ran out on him, last weekend, when he attempted to kidnap
the tribunal Judges, handling Election Petition in Imo State, at their
lodge, in Disney Hotels, along Onitsha -Owerri Road. Operatives of the
Department of State Security, DSS, acting On a tip-off swooped on him,
but he managed to escape with bullet wounds which he had gone to treat
in the house of his elder brother’s wife, in Ohafia, Abia State, where
men of the secret police eventually apprehended him.
He was arrested along side an army deserter, Akeem Bello, from Kwara
State, who abandoned his duty post at Maiduguiri where he was posted.
Fear of the activities of the Boko Haram sect probably informed his
action. A native doctor, Dan Elengi, who is said to be the proprietor of
a popular hotel at Ohii in Owerri Local Government Area, of Imo State
was also among those nabbed.
The 28-year-old man, who is an indigene of Nwangele Local Government
Area of Imo State, confessed when he was paraded before the Imo State
Governor Rochas Okorocha, that he operated from Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire
and he killed his girl friend and members of her family because she
stole his N45million, after he had opened a shop for her in Aba.
Meanwhile, relatives of his victims have been thrown into celebration
following news of his arrest. They called on the Imo State Government to
ensure that Henry who is also known as Vampire is prosecuted
judiciously. Ekene Ozor, the husband of one of Sandra’s sisters who was
killed on the day of the attack wants Henry to pay for his crimes.
“That man is
evil. He robbed me of my wife and two children and robbed my in-laws of
eight members of their family.But my God told me that he would not
escape judgment. I am grateful to God for his arrest and I commend the
efforts of the Nigeria police especially, the Special Anti Robbery Squad
SARS, Lagos State Police Command, who first handled my case, the DSS
operatives for their continued efforts to apprehend this heartless
criminal. I wish to commend also the governor of Imo State Rochas
Okorocha, for his efforts in the arrest of the deadly gang of killers.
Days after the attack on my home were highly traumatic. I had seven
corpses to deal with at a time and they were all in the mortuary.
I was the only
one taking care of my remaining children and I passionately wish to
appeal to governors Rochas Okorocha, Ifeanyi Okowa, Akinwumi Ambode and
other governors in the federation and well meaning Nigerians to come to
my aid as I feel very concerned about the education of my remaining
children and their welfare.Things have tough for me, my little children.
We are still having the psychological pain of the attack of Henry.
We have been
haunted by the fear of another attack by the serial killer. There have
been fears of going out freely because of the horrifying threats from
the serial killer and his cohorts. Consequently, I’m indebted to the
tune of N7.2 million excluding properties sold to meet up with bills,
drugs, surgery of my wife’s younger sister who survived gun shots. It is
by grace of God that I am still alive because it made me hypertensive
since then.”
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