Notorious
billionaire kidnap kingpin was christened Chukwumeme Onwuamadike but
chose the pseudonym Evans, which later relegated his real name to the
background. Although he claimed that he adopted the name while in
secondary school, the alias later became a ploy to cover his tracks as a
notorious kidnapper, who also had a dangerous voyage into the deadly
world of armed robbery and drug trafficking. Evans was as sly as a fox
and as a dangerous as the foamy race of ocean surge
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Yet,
he patronised a native doctor who assured him that just like a mirage,
the police could only arrest him in their imagination. These unholy
combinations, perhaps, explain why he evaded arrest for five years
before he met his Waterloo last week Saturday at his Magodo mansion in
Lagos in an operation led by the super cop, ACP Abba Kyari, and his
daring Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team.
Since
then, he has remained a topic of discussion and his infamous acts have
continued to intrigue Nigerians. The 36-year-old native of Nnewi,
Anambra State, was paraded with much fanfare by the Force Public
Relations Officer, CSP Jimoh Moshood, at the Lagos State Police
Headquarters, Ikeja last Sunday.
According
to police sources, he was declared wanted by the police as far back as
2013 following some high profile kidnappings that fetched him and
members of his gang billions of Naira collected from the families of
victims in form of ransom. Sitting with our correspondent for a chat
lasting about five hours, Evans looked forlorn. His countenance fell
just like Cain’s when God rejected his sacrifice.
His drug business in South Africa
“I
was working as an apprentice with my father before he moved me onto a
rich trader who later accused me of stealing his money. When my father
asked, I denied stealing the money but he did not believe me. He did not
just send me away in the end but said he had disowned me.
That
was the beginning of living on my own and fending for myself,” he said.
For Evans, the path of crime opened up around 2006 and 2007 when he
relocated to South Africa upon losing N20million worth of goods which he
said were seized by men of the Nigeria Customs Service. Kidnapping,
however, was to appeal to him three years later.
He
said: “I went to South Africa from Lagos, I went around 2006 or 2007
but you can check my passport. While in South Africa, I was into drug
business. I wanted to move the drugs to Nigeria but I couldn’t get the
channel and distribution network needed. Before then, I was selling
fairly used spare parts in Ladipo, Mushin, Lagos and it was from there
that I linked up with the gang with which I went for my first robbery
operation although I did not do any robbery there.
I
was just selling fairly used spare parts but I made contacts with gang
members later on but I was able to raise enough money from selling parts
there, some of which I used to relocate to SA.” Evans, who dropped out
of secondary school, said he had always dreamt of making money, hence
the decision to venture into business when he arrived in Lagos as a boy.
A
combination of the desire to make more money and face less stress
coupled with a situation that almost turned fatal led to his return to
Nigeria from the rainbow nation.
“I
came back the same year so I spent only one year there. I had to come
back because of an issue, the issue was that most South Africans like to
collect drugs without paying money so I wanted to drag the drug from
one man and he brought out his gun and shot me.
Following
the shooting incident, I was treated in Cape Town at the Life Claremont
Hospital and once I was well again, I came back to Nigeria not long
after. It was on my own; not that I was deported.” With the South Africa
chapter closed, he relocated to Nigeria and made a vow that he would
make it in in his country of birth either by crook of by hooks. “When I
came back into the country, there were two boys: Kingsley and Ehis.
I
had been in touch with both of them all along and we met and they
introduced me to robbery. I met Kingsley when he came back from Libya
while I met Ehis in Lagos, somewhere around Ikorodu.
“I
really don’t remember how I linked up with Ehis; all I know is that it
was through a phone call. To proceed with the robbery plan, I hooked up
with Ehis and his boys and the first job Ehis and I did regarding
kidnapping was in Edo State,” he said. How three bullion van robberies
fetched his gang N400million Speaking about his robbery escapades, most
of which were mainly targeted at bullion vans, Evans continued:
“I
was introduced to it by a guy named ‘Too Much Money.’ The first bullion
van job was in Port Harcourt, somewhere around Aba Road. We made about
N70 million from the job but I don’t remember the particular year this
happened.
“Usually,
the process for a bullion job is always long; a lot of planning goes
into it. We usually seize a truck and use it to jam the bullion van and
it would lose control and then we use tear gas on the policemen and
force the driver to open the back of the van to gain access to the
money. So, we hijacked a truck and used the same process I just
explained. We usually have sources who would keep us informed about how
the cash is being moved.
Those
that were working for ‘Too Much Money’ told us all we needed to know to
hijack the bullion van and about 26 of us went for the operation. I was
in charge of driving one of the three vehicles we used for the job and I
got just around N1.5 million from the job. “After the Port Harcourt
bullion van job, I met a man named ND and it took sometime before we
went for another job.
Before
that, we were still talking on the phone but I think it was after two
or three weeks after the end of the Port Harcourt business.” It was
observed that he saw all the crimes he committed as business ventures.
He
never for once used the term, “robbery operation” for any of the three
bullion van heists, neither did he refer to any of his kidnap-for-ransom
as crime. Rather, he chose the euphemism ‘jobs’ for his kidnapping
operations. As it happened in the first operations, he said he was a
driver in the second bullion van operation in Enugu.
“I
was in Enugu, lodged in a hotel before the job and which was paid for
by ND. The job took place on the outskirt of Enugu and we made use of
jazz to beat security. We made over N200miilion from the job but the
unfortunate part of it was that ND didn’t give us any money. After the
operation, he said all of us should go but he gave some money to his own
gang members but he also gave me small money, about N300, 000. When he
promised to kill the over 20 other members who took part in the job, we
all left him.”
Upon
hooking up with another leader of a robbery gang named Obele in the
Edo-Delta state axis, Evans said he participated in yet another bullion
van robbery which fetched them over N100 million. “The next bullion van
job was in Umuahia in Abia State and it was led by Obele.
This
happened in 2010 and we went to Old Umuahia Road to carry out the
operation. There was someone inside the bank that was monitoring the van
for us to know when to strike. Like other times, many of us took part
in the operation, we took three vehicles and I was given about N7
million from that job.” A simple addition of the total money Evans and
the gangs he joined for the three bullion van robberies puts it at
around N400million.
From
the N7.5 million or so he got from the third bullion van robbery, he
bought a car, Honda Car popularly known as ‘Baby Boy’ and also opened a
shop at ASPAMDA at the Trade Fair Complex. Trading in fuel and car
accessories, he said he invested N6.2 million into the shop.
He
also rented a flat at Marwa Road in Satellite Town and brought his wife
to Lagos but his life out of crime was not going to last. Shifting a
bit to the side that has to do with his personal life, Evans said he was
married already by the time he went for the bullion van robberies.
His marital life
“I
was already married during this time, the name of my wife is Precious, I
met her in Nwagwu in Nnewi. So looking back now, it means I must have
been married for over 11 years and my first child is over 10-year-old.
Once I met my wife, we didn’t date for too long like that.
I
dated her for just about six months and married her. She was in SS3
when I met her and she was preparing to sit her WAEC examination but
once she got pregnant for me she had to stop anything that has to do
with schooling and I went to pay something on her head (dowry).
It’s
a lie that I have other wives, I have only one wife.” When asked if his
wife knows about his life of crime, he simply said: “I didn’t want my
wife to know and I have been very careful to hide my identity as Evans
from her and my children up till the time of my arrest.
But
now that I am in police custody and everything is out in the open, I
don’t even have any knowledge on their whereabouts.” Asked if anyone
else knows about his heavy involvement in kidnapping, drug trafficking
and robbery, he said maybe only his mother.
“The
other person I can talk about who knows about it is my mother. But I
have not seen her for a long time, she is suffering from stroke.” So
with all the money at his disposal and the love he said he had for her,
why hasn’t he flown her out of the country yet? His direct answer was
simply: “She is not interested.”
Paraded
alongside six members of his gang including Uchechukwu Amadi and his
wife, Ogechi as well as Chukwudi Nwosu alias Skido from Abia State,
36-year-old Felix Chinemerem also from Abia, Chukwuemeka Ikenna Bosah
who is 28 years old and from Anambra State and 42-year-old Bayelsa
State-born Suoyo Paul aka Nwana who was touted to be the gang’s
armourer.
Items
recovered from the gang include two double barrel guns, two AK 47
rifles, 59 AK 47 magazines, two English pistols, 1, 272 bullets, five
different number plates and improvised leg chains used in restraining
their victims.
Why I collected foreign currency as ransom
A
grand planner of things, Evans said he made the decision to collect
ransom in foreign currency, especially dollars while not minding pounds
and Euros. “I usually collect ransoms in dollars and I made the decision
after my former partner, Uche, was killed along with Hunchman and
others and I had to reassemble a new team. His death came from the
encounter we had with the police when we wanted to kidnap the ‘Young
Shall Grow’ man, Chief Vincent Obianodo.
“His
security shot at us as there was a gun battle, Uche and two others died
in the process and I had to flee from the scene in my car, one other
guy who was shot in the car I was driving later died and I abandoned the
body.
“After
the incident, I escaped to Abuja for things to cool off for a while. I
was in Abuja for about two months and once I got back to Lagos, I went
to secure the ‘materials’ we were using for the job and reassembled my
team.
The
thing about kidnapping is that the person who owns the materials (guns,
hideout and vehicles) is usually seen as the owner of the job and now
fully in charge, I took the decisions and became the person now leading
the team in every area and also rented a house at Igando”.
Apart
from other kidnappings in Edo State, where he, along with others, made
sums ranging between N10 and N40million for each operation, Evans was
able to amass a fortune running into over N1billion from kidnapping
numerous businessmen in Lagos, with at least four of them paying
$1million each.
Evans,
working with Ehis and Harrison, organised some of the biggest
kidnappings in Edo State in the last few years. Some of the people they
kidnapped include the boss of King Paints (N7m), Randeki (N11m), Uyi
Technical boss (N100m) as well as Dan Odite around the same time.
According to him, other associates who negotiated with the Odite’s
family Henry, said the money paid was $27,000.
It
was while in Edo State, with the stakes rising fast, that he decided to
relocate his young family to Ghana. Settling them in Tema in Accra, the
capital of the former Gold Coast, Evans felt more empowered to fly as
much as he could.
Why I left Edo for Lagos
When
he decided to relocate to Lagos, a move necessitated by the surging
number of kidnappers in Edo and with the operational space becoming
smaller, he rented an apartment at Lakeview Estate in Amuwo Odofin and
fully came back to Lagos in 2013.
With
Lagos as his new playing field along with his gang, they started with
Raymond Okoye, a generator dealer kidnapped on one of his days of
frequenting a bar on 21 Road, Festac Town in Lagos.
After
days of standing firm in conversations with the man’s family, they
ended up paying between N30million and N40 million, out of which Evans
said he got N35million. Others include the boss of Uchesons, a man
kidnapped at 6th Avenue also in Festac. A man from Okija, Anambra State,
who resides in Ajao Estate, was next and they got N60 million after
keeping him for weeks. Once on his own, the two businessmen at the Auto
Spare Parts and Machinery Dealers Association (ASPAMDA), better known as
Trade Fair, were the first Evans would kidnap.
With
the abductions done around the same time, it fetched him $1million each
from the two men. One of them, Udoji, who was picked from around his
residence at Agbara, was injured in the process.
Bleeding
profusely hours after he was abducted, Evans said it led him into going
online to get information on how to stop the bleeding while making it
clear to the man’s wife who was abroad and whom he was speaking with at
the time that the injury was as a result of an accident.
His houses in Magodo, Ejigbo and Igando and operations cars
Moving
to Magodo in 2014 after purchasing a house from a real estate firm in
charge of numerous houses at the pricey location, Evans consolidated by
further spreading his tentacles. He bought two other houses for keeping
his victims, one in the densely populated Ejigbo part of Lagos and
another in Igando, bringing the number of his houses in Igando to two
and adding three new vehicles; a Grand Cherokee SUV, Lexus 460 SUV and a
Hilux which was solely for operations.
So
sophisticated was Evans’ operational model that the members of his
three different gangs could hardly reach him on their own; the
conversation had to be initiated from his end and most times, the
direction was one-sided. One of the phones he used was a satellite phone
which doesn’t use a SIM and cannot be tracked It was learnt that while
most of the people Evans had worked with are dead, a few are serving
jail terms across the country, but neither the dead nor those serving
jail term could be linked with him.
He
operated like a cult but even the initiated who were members of his
gang had no contact with him except shortly before or during their
operations. According to him, he is still trying to adjust to the harsh
reality of his arrest.
“I
can say my arrest was the handiwork of God because of all the security
measures I put in place. In my house in Magodo, I have all round
security completed with CCTVs that monitor anyone coming in or going
out. According to CSP Moshood, the Force Public Relations Officer, some
high-profile victims of the Evans kidnap gang include James Uduji, Uche
Okoroafor.
Pharmacist’s kidnap, my toughest
Speaking
of his victims, Evans said: “I didn’t know it was going to turn out
that way. I usually don’t know names of people I kidnapped in Festac.
But if I see them, I will tell you what I did to them. I have people who
gave me information about my victims. The pharmacist job is the only
one that gave us a problem. I keep my victims for months because I want
their people to pay the ransom I demanded. I have people cooking for my
victims, one of them stays in the house; his name is Uche.
“We
kept him (the pharmacist) at Uche’s house in New Ignado but he managed
to escape. The other boy is from Aguleri. The boy is a new person, but
Uche is old.” On his Magodo houses, he said: “I bought the houses in
Magodo GRA for N130 million and N100 million.
Evans,
described as a very brilliant but vicious kidnapper by the police, said
he kept many gangs and did not interact with many of his gang members
on a personal note which made it difficult to pin him down.
Asked
why almost all his victims were from the South East, he said it was
just a business decision. Trending like a furious rainstorm since the
story broke on Saturday, it is a matter that has got Nigerians numbed
owing to the sheer bravado of his operations and the range of Evans’
reach while living a life of luxury in the midst of the high and mighty
as an everyday Nigerian.
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