UNTIL he was seized, four days ago, at about3.00
am, at an undisclosed hotel, in Port-Harcourt,
Rivers State, many people, including security
officials, only mentioned his name in whispers. He
was simply known as Kelvin, the most wanted
kidnapper/armed robbery kingpin in Delta State,
who hails from Kokori in Ethiope-East Local
Government Area.
It was as if the dreaded suspect, described by the
state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu
Aduba, as insane and a drug addict, would
spiritually manifest if his name was mentioned.
Police officers never liked being deployed in
search of him, despite his alleged naked exploits
because he was believed to possess very powerful
charms and also sadistic.
Even soldiers, who had mounted siege for him for
months over the alleged killing of some military
men, last year, by his gang, before he was finally
arrested in Port-Harcourt by a combined team of
army Department of State Security, and DSS,
operatives, have their own tales.
In fact, his hour of arrest has been given an
impervious undertone. A villager told Sunday
Vanguard in Warri, “I was told by doctors and
nurses that 3:00 am is the time of night when the
body is at its lowest ebb, and it seems to be the
time that a large percentage of people in
hospitals die”
A spiritualist, Mr. Johnson Nege, asserted, “In
European mythology, 3.00 am is regarded as the
witching hour – that is the time when
supernatural creatures such as witches, demons
and ghosts are thought to be at their most
powerful, and black magic at its most effective.
This hour is typically midnight, and the term may
now be used to refer to midnight, or any late
hour.”
Unmasking the masquerade
Undeniably, it was only after Kelvin was arrested,
September 25, that his full names, Kelvin Prosper
Oniarah, came to light from the DSS in Abuja.
For the avoidance of doubt, Police Commissioner
Aduba, in an interview exclusively published by
Vanguard same day the suspect was arrested in
Port Harcourt, officially gave his name for the first
time as Kelvin Oniarah.
The police had, shortly after the suspect, who had
been on the wanted list, breached security by
appearing “live” in Kokori, September 17, and
melted into the thin air after issuing a 60-day
ultimatum to government, identified him as
Kelvin Obruvbe. But Aduba told Sunday Vanguard
the suspect’s name is Kelvin Oniarah.
Kelvin’s LIMUP gang…waiting for amnesty
The façade
Unknown to his kinsmen, who he gave the
impression that he was a freedom fighter and
Robinhood of sort, Kelvin, confirmed by Governor
Emmanuel Uduaghan, who provided logistics for
security agencies in the manhunt for him to have
cells in no fewer than six states, is alleged to be
the most deadly kidnap kingpin in the South-
south.
But in Kokori, not many recognized that the
diminutive youth, understandably less than 40
years, as such a cold-hearted killer, ferocious
armed robber, poisonous kidnapper and terrorist.
That is not to say that the elders, women and
youths, who shared from his alleged loot
whenever he came to his Irevwurie Street abode,
did not suspect he is a criminal.
A knowledgeable indigene of the community told
Sunday Vanguard in Warri, “Honestly, Kokori is a
big community and Kelvin is not known there
until less than two years ago when his name
became associated with high-profile kidnap and
armed robbery cases.
“Like I said, it is a big town, nobody really cared
about him, he is a small boy until all of a sudden
we started hearing about him, particularly about
his criminal activities. People do not even know
his father’s name, but his grandfather’s name is
Oniarah. He (Kelvin) is not a popular person as
such because he has not done anything big for
the people.
“Let me say it was just last year when he was
declared wanted that he really came to be noted
by people in Kokori. The search for him was on
when he attacked some warders, conveying
suspects, among them members of his gang, to
court, killed some warders and rescued his men,
some months ago, in Warri. He managed to
escape and security agents flooded Kokori, the
police razed his family house.
Sporadic visit
“He ran out of town, but he, nevertheless, comes
to town irregularly. There was a time it actually
looked that he had made so much money from
his operations, which nobody had full idea of, and
he would come to town and share money to
people.”
Blood money
The source went on, “His willingness to splash his
loot, sometimes N1,000, N2,000 and N5,000, to
children, youth and women, endeared him to the
‘hungry’ villagers. This was in Kokori until
penultimate Tuesday when he came in military
fatigue with eight of his boys to declare that he
had founded a group, Liberation Movement of the
Urhobo People, LIMUP, to liberate them.
Ignorance
“They ignorantly believed him. You see, anytime
he came to town before, it was in plain clothes,
but on that day, he came in military fatigue,
indicating that he was ready to fight for the
emancipation of the people.
“Anytime Kelvin came to Kokori, he would stay
about two days, not more than that. Within the
period, he would see the people he wanted to see
and, before you know it, he was gone. You see
him in Kokori when people were not expecting
him and when he told the people this time that
he was going to fight government and oil
companies that were allegedly oppressing them;
they believed a messiah had come.”
“He told them Kokori has not been developed by
government and that the same thing went with
Urhobo land, it was the truth and they saw with
him. However, I must tell you that it is not true
that elderly persons here were supporting Kelvin.
It is just that nobody wanted to be dragged into a
situation with him and his boys.
Why elders could not speak out
“His infamous activities obviously threatened the
peace of the community with the incursion of
security agents at different times. Even our king,
who just received his staff of office and barely
three months on the throne, found himself in a
quagmire.
“Should he hand over one of his subjects to
security agencies and face the backlash at home
from his chiefs and people, who will accuse him
as a betrayer or damn the consequences. If he
supported Kelvin, he was in trouble, if he didn’t
support him, he was in trouble, that was his
dilemma.”
With so much money he allegedly made from
kidnapping, and he reportedly held sway in not
less than six states, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Abia,
Benue and Oyo, Kelvin turned Kokori to the axis of
death for his victims and security agents.
Lifestyle
He was said to have lived a deceitful and lavish
lifestyle and hibernated frequently in hotels.
Money was not essentially his problem, as he was
audacious and bold in his operations. It was said
that he never collected small ransom and when
he negotiated ransom, the negotiator on the
other side was left with no other impression than
the guy was mean, and the best thing to do was
to raise the ransom at all costs.
When Lagos lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN,
was allegedly abducted by Kelvin and his boys,
last month, they told him plainly that they were
graduates, who were pushed to the deadly
business, condemned by the Almighty God, and
that was why Ozekhome, when he came out, said
those who kidnapped were unemployed
graduates and asked for amnesty for them.
Security agents consider coming to Kokori on any
assignment as a deadly mission. Commissioner
Aduba alleged, at a time, that most of the motor-
cyclists operating in Kokori were on the payroll of
Kelvin, who bought the motorcycles for them. He
said they normally passed information to him
whenever they see security agents or were asked
probing questions about the suspected gangster.
It was the intelligence report that led to the
banning of commercial motorcycle transportation
in Kokori and other parts of Ethiope East, but the
bandit was not deterred.
Training school
Aduba alleged that the kingpin had a school
where he trained kidnappers, both graduates
and, undergraduates, and according to a security
report, he once boasted to a top security chief on
phone that even if he was arrested and killed, his
boys would continue with the kidnapping
business.
Kelvin’s family home in Kokori, which was
destroyed by the police, this year, was said to
have served as a recruitment and training centre
for kidnappers. His second-in-command was said
to be a mechanical engineering graduate from
the South-east, while Kelvin himself is also a
graduate.
In an interview before Kelvin was reined in, Aduba
revealed, “Kelvin recruits undergraduates,
graduates, Okada riders, and he buys
motorcycles for them and tutors them. He has so
many gangs in the state working for him. There is
a network; this is what I have discovered and we
have been finding it difficult to get at him
because, in that axis, the moment they see any
stranger, they will blow the whistle.
“However, we have been able to bulldoze to some
extent; it was in Kelvin’s house that we picked up
the personal assistant to a commissioner in the
Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development
Commission, DESOPADEC, who was kidnapped.
His (Kelvin) parents were there, but you know this
arrest by proxy, we do not want to be involved in
it.”
The Commission went on: “Kelvin is a dare-devil
criminal and is not friendly with anybody – he is a
drug addict, insane and cannot be relied upon by
anybody. Kelvin and his gang even tried to
kidnap his traditional ruler- the Ovie of Agbon clan
and the Special Adviser to a civil commissioner,
who is from Kokori.”
Kingpin’s parents flee community
Kelvin’s parents escaped from the town when the
bombardment by security agents, who were
looking for their son, became suffocating. Their
whereabouts and what advice they gave to their
son could not be ascertained.
Military operation
Given the suspect’s very strong network in the
South-south, South-east, South-west and North, it
would be a costly error to assume that his boast
that his boys would continue to be in operation
even if he was arrested was empty.
Governor Uduaghan, who found it strange at
leaders from Kokori community could not boldly
give him information on how to nail Kelvin, even
in secret, when he invited them, understands
what it means to allow the suspect’s boys to
reorganize after the arrest of their master.
He told reporters, Thursday evening, in Warri,
after a security meeting, that the army had
commenced a full-scale operation to flush out
associates of Kelvin and other criminals from
Kokori.
Intelligence revealed that his boys still holed up in
the area may carry out a reprisal attack over his
arrest and so, the army were said to be in an
“internal operation” to checkmate possible action
by the elements loyal to the suspect.
After Kelvin’s arrest, on Wednesday, more
soldiers, policemen and other security personnel
were deployed in Kokori.
Operational bases
A reliable source, however, told Sunday
Vanguard, “Kelvin’s operational base is not in
Kokori. I do not know where it is, but this is
somebody I can tell you hardly stayed in Kokori
more than two days and he was off, he, no doubt,
had sophisticated gangs, but I think they were
scattered over the country. He was only coming
to Kokori to show off as a big boy.”
The DSS, in a statement in Abuja through its
Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations,
Marilyn Ogar, said Kelvin “maintained operational
bases and detention camps in Warri and Kokori
community in Delta State, Ugbokolo community
in Benue State, Benin City in Edo State, and Aba
in Abia State.

He is a mere mortal who had guns n manpower...fullstop.