Police Nab Kidnapper Of Lawmaker Allegedly Sleeping With His Wife

The Nigeria Police are currently working to unravel alleged serial kidnapping involving a 36-year-old man identified as Cyril Isong accused of abducting a House of Representatives member in 2020.

But Isong, who is facing accusations of spearheading several kidnap cases in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said in his confessional statement that the lawmaker deserved what happened to him for wooing and sleeping with his wife of four years.

According to the Police, with the investigation soon to be concluded on the case, the suspect would be charged to court to answer charges of kidnapping and Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (AOBH).

AOBH is an offence under Section 351-369 of the Nigerian Criminal Code Act which carries a maximum penalty of five (5) years in prison or (7) years when committed with another person at the conclusion of the investigation.

Isong, a graduate of Information Technology at the Federal University of Minna, Niger State, had allegedly conspired with some other persons still at large to kidnap the legislator in Abuja and extort money from him in 2020.

Attributing his action to the fact that the legislator, whose identity remains undisclosed, was having an amorous affair with his wife, the man while being paraded by the Police, told newsmen that he had discovered the development after hacking his wife’s phone.

According to the suspect; “I got married in 2017. The experience between 2017 and 2019 was awesome. I travelled all over the world with my beautiful wife, for business and pleasure. All was going on well until COVID-19 disrupted everything.

“We lost a lot of goods as a businessman and at one point, I was indebted. All of a sudden, I noticed that my wife started locking her phone. Being a computer guru, I was able to tap into her line and started reading her discussion with different men. Reading text messages of how she begged men for money got me angry.

‘‘The honourable was one of them. One day, he (legislator) visited our house pretending to be a family friend. Unknown to him that I had read his chats with my wife. That was when I made up my mind to deal with him. I played along and collected his number.

“His visit led to the break-up of my marriage because when I confronted my wife, she got angry and packed out of the house. When my wife left, I bought a new line and contacted the honourable, pretending to be a woman. I contacted some cultists that I knew in school to help me arrange a beautiful girl who had a video call with the honourable. He fell into the trap.

“I told honourable that I hated sleeping in the hotel with a man that is not my husband. I invited him to a short-let apartment in an estate in Asokoro, where I paid N80,000 per night. On the agreed date, he came and we tied him up.

‘‘I did not speak throughout so that he wouldn’t recognize my voice. We searched him and took all the valuables and cash found on him. He refused to call his family for more money. Rather, he requested our account number.

‘‘But I knew that would implicate us. So, we untied him and allowed him to go. We did not beat him. It was at the police station that I learnt the boys that I hired took some dollars from his car,” he said.

However, relating the story as told by the undisclosed lawmaker who petitioned to the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, a Police insider revealed that Isong was tracked down recently in Akwa Ibom by operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team led by DCP Tunji Disu, a year after the abduction took place.

The victim alleged in the petition that on August 4, 2020, he received a call from an unknown caller who introduced himself as Sani and claimed to be a former National Assembly member.

Sani reportedly claimed that he was having health challenges and was advised to contact the lawmaker who was in charge of the affairs of former members of the House.

The legislator further claimed that he directed Sani to his house in Abuja but the caller gave an excuse he had been rendered immobile by the illness and appealed to the lawmaker to come to his apartment in Asokoro.

“On getting to the short let facility, the victim reportedly met two men who introduced themselves as Sani’s brothers. He was said to have been attacked immediately he was ushered in, blindfolded and tied up.

“They collected $2,000 and N65,000 found on him. They searched his car and took all his valuables. They demanded a number to call for a ransom. He begged them and they freed him.

“He reported the incident at the Asokoro Police Station. Luckily on August 31, 2021, Isong was arrested in his state in Akwa Ibom.”

Though not yet regarded as federal offences, kidnapping convictions can result in lengthy prison sentences in some states of the federation. Whoever kidnaps or abducts a person risk imprisonment for a term that may extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to a fine.

However, according to Senator Ibikunle Amosun (APC-Osun) who is sponsoring the bill titled; “Abduction, Wrongful Restraints and Confinement Bill 2021″ currently before the Nigeria Senate; “To achieve the deterrent effect, life imprisonment is proposed for the offence of kidnapping, particularly where death results from the act.

“The law is made stricter by ensuring that recipients of any proceeds of the act of kidnapping are heavily sanctioned with a term of imprisonment of up to 30 years.”