A
suspected cultist and kidnapper shocked newsmen on Friday when he
confessed that he had lost count of the number of persons he had killed
before his arrest by men of the Rivers State Police Command.
The
suspect identified as Mitchel Tamuno, the leader of a cult group, was
apprehended by the police in connection with the alleged kidnap on April
14 of a 14-old-old girl.
The girl (name withheld) was said to have been raped by her captors, including Mitchel before she eventually escaped from them.
Narrating
why he was arrested by the police, Mitchel explained that he was only
involved in killing of members of rival cult groups and did not shed
“innocent blood”.
Mitchel, who insisted that he could no longer
remember the number of persons he had killed, stated that he purchased
the four AK 47 rifles used for operation by members of his cult group
(Icelander) from one Ifeanyi in Aba, Abia State.
He added that the
guns were used to kill some members of rival cult group (Greenlanders)
so as to avenge the killing of members of his own group.
Mitche, who
promised to go back to his fish farming business if freed, said, “I have
never shed innocent blood. We only kill people that come to kill us
because we know the people we are fighting. The AK 47 rifles that were
recovered belong to us as a group. I bought them from one Mr. Ifeanyi in
Aba, Abia State. He sold the first two to us at N250,000 each and the
second batch of two for N280,000 each.
“We only have four guns in our
possession. We use the guns to fight our opponents. Our opponents are
the Greenlanders and we fight for supremacy. I have never killed anybody
and cut the head. Those who behead do so because they want the other
group to feel the pain.
“When you come, you see your friend dead and
without a head, you feel the pain. The fight is not on a daily basis.
When we get information about them, we go after them and when they
(rival cult group) get information about us, they come after us too. I
have lost count of how many people I have killed because they all
happened on different occasions.”
A member of the gang, who gets
information for the kidnap gang, Godwin Pina, denied being a member of
any cult group, but only gave information on how to kidnap the
14-year-old girl.
Pina, a 23-year-old labourer, disclosed that the
girl that was kidnapped was her neighbour, adding that he became worried
when he learnt from the gang members that their victim had escaped.
“They
(gang members) called me that the girl had run away. One of my friends,
who is at large (Bobo mi) informed me that the girl ran away. I regret
my action. Francis, Bobomi and Collins also kidnapped Madam Lizzy.
“I
am only involved in the kidnap of the girl, but I did not take part in
raping her. Mitchel is our number one man in our group,” Pina added
while appealing to the police for forgiveness.
Speaking on the
arrested men, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ahmad
Muhammad, said Pina was arrested while he went to the bank to withdraw
the N50,000 their victim’s father paid into their (kidnappers) account.
Muhammad
explained that Pina was able to give the police information that led to
the arrest of Mitchel and other gang members, adding that four AK 47
rifles were recovered in the course of investigation.
He pointed out
that the command would not relent in its determination to arrest
criminals in the state and bring them to book, adding that the command
in the month of April arrested 70 suspected kidnappers, cultists and
armed robbers.
Muhammad added that 25 suspects were killed during a
shootout with policemen while 11 AK 47 rifles and 17 assorted illicit
firearms, 480 different calibres of ammunition were recovered from the
suspected criminals.
On how Mitchel’s gang’s victim was able to
escape, he said the girl escaped with a ladder she sighted within an
uncompleted building where she was held hostage, recalling that four of
the kidnappers, who raped her, were fast asleep when the victim escaped.
He
said, “She (victim) then followed the sound of vehicles she was hearing
from the road and got to the main road, saw a man driving a car, waved
the car down and told the driver that she escaped from kidnappers’ den.
“She
appealed to the driver of the car to help her call her father, who is a
pastor in Bayelsa State. The Good Samaritan called the father of the
victim and told him the development and the father directed the man to
take her daughter to any nearby police station.
“Before then, the
kidnappers had already put a call across to the father of their victim,
demanding for ransom of N10m. They equally forwarded an account number
detail to the victim’s father.
“One of the kidnapers (Godwin Pina)
went to the bank immediately he noticed that the sum of N50,000 had been
paid into the account for the upkeep of their victim, pending when the
ransom demanded would be raised.
When the suspected was arrested, he
then opened up that their boss, Mitchel, was staying in Okrika. Then the
Anti-kidnapping unit moved to Abam in Okrika and arrested Mitchel and
10 other boys in his house.
“Two AK 47 rifles were recovered from
him. On interrogation, he (Mitchel) said he had other two AK 47 rifles
with one Iyalla Appolos somewhere in Azubokwe. We moved in there and
Iyalla was arrested and the two AK 47 rifles were recovered from him,”
Muhammad added.
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