Following his arrest on Saturday, June 11, 2017, by a combined team of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and the Lagos State Police Command, billionaire kidnap kingpin, Chukwudi Dumeme Onwuamadike, alias Evans, has confessed that his decision to take to crime came after he was disowned by his father.
Evans who had successfully eluded the police for more than seven years was nabbed at his Magodo Phase II GRA mansion for allegedly coordinating several high-profile kidnappings, armed robbery and murders within Lagos, Edo, Abia, Enugu and Anambra States, revealed that it was after his father disowned him that he became a hardened criminal.
Vanguard reports that Evans who made billions of Naira during his reign as an ingenious kidnapper in the country said he that he was forced to drop out of school while in Junior Secondary School Class 2 (JSS2), when his father, Steven Onwuamadike, drove his mother away and got married to another woman.
After he dropped out of school, Evans reportedly disclosed that his father, a rich businessman, sent him to join a spare parts dealer in Nnewi, Anambra State, whom he served for five years without settlement because the man later accused him of stealing.
The development, according to him, embarrassed his father so much that he drove him out of his house and he had to leave his Akamili, Umudim Quarters, Nnewi home, and that his father’s action affected him deeply and he was forced to move into his mother’s house.
He said his mother accepted him and raised money for him which he used in traveling to Lagos.
While in Lagos, Evans said that he started selling diesel to luxury buses and truck drivers at Alafia Bus-stop along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. He explained that while he was selling diesel, he slept in a bus garage and that was where he joined a robbery gang.
His robbery gang specialized in attacking luxury buses plying the East–West Road, at night. It was gathered that Evans who had several informants around motor parks in Alafia, Maza-Maza and Jibowu areas of Lagos, used to obtain first-hand information on the movements of traders coming from the East to Lagos with huge amounts of money.
A police source disclosed that Evans and his gang would attack these buses on the highway and dispossess the passengers of their cash and other valuables, explaining that some of his gang members were arrested and when the police were closing in on him, he fled the country to South Africa where he became a drug dealer.
After a while, he came back to the country and moved to the East where he formed another dangerous gang that started robbing and kidnapping wealthy businessmen, especially in the commercial city of Onitsha in Anambra State and Aba in Abia State.
When his notoriety soared in criminal circles, other robbery gangs started seeking him and he became a financier of arms and armourer for the fearless and deadly armed robbery kingpin in the east from Nkanu in Enugu State known as Ngwu Ekekere Omu, who robbed banks all over the country until he was killed in Anambra by a military patrol team.
Afterward, Evans carried out a bloody robbery operation in Nsukka, Enugu State, where he reportedly killed some police officers including a Divisional Police Officer and later shot the SARS Commander in Enugu in the knee while they were pursuing him along Adani/Otuocha road.
During that operation, he also burnt down the Nsukka Police Station after raiding one of the banks and as he was escaping from the scene with his gang, they threw bundles of crisp Naira notes in different denominations to the cheering crowd and commercial motorcyclists, including school children who were on their way home.
After Ngwu Ekekere Omu was killed, Evans took over the gang and participated actively in other deadly operations and later, after some of his gang members were killed, he again escaped abroad.
On his return, he veered into full-time kidnapping with Lagos as his base, often posing as a rich spare parts dealer from South Africa.
Police reports also alleged that he participated in some operations with another notorious killer, Vampire, who was later killed by the police after plotting his escape from Owerri court in Imo State while on trial.
Investigations further revealed that Evans later linked up with another notorious kidnapper called Henry Hunchman in Anambra and they coordinated several high-profile kidnappings.
They were later chased out of Anambra during the regime of former Governor Peter Obi and they fled to Edo State where Evans teamed up with one of his friends, Ehis and continued with kidnappings.
Evans also told the police that Ehis introduced him to some of his friends known as Benin Papa, Odionose, Okey and Igbo Papa and they coordinated several kidnappings.
He further explained that he was forced to invite his friend, Hunchman, whom he said had heavy arms and ammunition, to join them in Edo State.
"When Hunchman came in, we carried out two big kidnappings that yielded N150 million, but Hunchman who owned the arms and ammunition, ran away with the money," Evans reportedly said.
The then Inspector General of Police, MD Abubakar, worried over the incessant kidnappings by the gang, deployed one of his key operatives, Patrick Ejedawe, the Commander of Mopol 2 Squadron Command, Lagos, to Edo State to track down the gang.
The intervention of ACP Ejedawe led to the deaths of key members of the gang like Benin Papa, Odionosa, Okey, Igbo Papa and many others who were killed in gun battles with the police, leading to Evans, Hunchman, and Sudo, to escape to Ghana.
After a while Evans, Hunchman, and Sudo came back to Nigeria and were based in Lagos and that was when the went into full-scale kidnappings, targeting residents of Festac Town, Amuwo-Odofin, Ojo and Ajao Estate as well as big traders at the Alaba International Market from whom they collected billions of Naira, often in foreign currencies.
Evans was said to have invested heavily in his security and allegedly bought a phone valued at $6, 000 and used it track police movements on him and that was how he was able to escape for so long before the police hierarchy acquired a more sophisticated equipment which they used to nullify his security devices.
(Pulse)
(Pulse)
(Vanguard)
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