Operatives of the Edo State police command have arrested one Bassey Nyong Uweh (32) for allegedly kidnapping and killing his employer, Henry Ohiengbomwan, a farmer, after collecting an undisclosed ransom.
The incident, it was gathered, happened at Igueze village on the Benin-Lagos expressway in Ovia North East Local Government Area of the state.
The suspect and four others at large, were employees of the deceased and reportedly conspired to kidnap him after the deceased had harvested pineapples and sold them.
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It was learnt that two of the suspects are from Akwa Ibom State while three others are from Nasarawa State.
It was gathered that the deceased, a farmer, who resides in Benin, had large acres of pineapple, cocoa, melon and yam in his community (Igueze) and engaged the service of the five labourers, who worked on his farm on a monthly salary.
It was also gathered that the deceased on May 13, 2025, went to his farm in company of the five workers to harvest pineapple and sold the produce for over N900,000.
It was further gathered that after the sales, his worker kidnapped him into the forest, collected the N900,000, killed and buried him in a shallow grave.
The kidnappers, thereafter, reportedly called the deceased’s family and demanded a ransom of N60 million to release him but the family requested to speak with the deceased before paying the ransom.
The suspects reportedly demanded N300,000 from them in order to have an audience with the deceased but they didn’t allow them despite receiving the money paid by one of the deceased’s brothers.
The development, it was learnt, aroused suspicion from the family members that the deceased wasn’t alive and they reported the incident to the police.
Source said as at the time of negotiating ransom, the suspects had already killed and buried the victim but had to flee the community to evade arrest.
It also gathered that the anti-kidnapping unit of the Edo police command, using high technical facilities, tracked and arrested the suspect in a creek at Eyo Abasi village in Oron, Akwa lbom State.
The spokesperson of the command, CSP Moses Yamu, who confirmed the incident, said one of the suspects had been arrested in Akwa Ibom.
He said the suspect confessed that after collecting the money, they killed the suspect and buried him, adding that he led the police to a forest where they buried him in a shallow grave.
He assured that investigation was on to arrest the four other suspects.
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