:
The state’s Commissioner of Police, Kayode
Aderanti, said the victim, Precious Ugochi Okoro,
residing at Ajah with her parents, was on her way
back to her school, a boarding facility in Ikenne,
Ogun State, when she was kidnapped A suspected kidnapper has revealed why he sold his 15-year-old cousin into sex slavery. The suspect, Kelvin Okorie, 27, cousin to the girl’s mother, was tracked and arrested by detectives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command after 11 months of chasing him and his gang members across different African countries. Aside from Okorie, other members of the gang now in police custody are Innocent Onyekwe, 38; Ugwu Christopher, 37; Christian Mercy, 19; and Ogbonna Njioku, 20. Okorie confessed that he sold the girl, Precious Ugochi Okoro, to be able to raise money to start his own business. The state’s Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti, said the victim, Precious Ugochi Okoro, residing at Ajah with her parents, was on her way back to her school, a boarding facility in Ikenne, Ogun State, when she was kidnapped. Aderanti said: “The kidnappers after two months of holding the victim hostage contacted her parents, using various telephone numbers. They demanded for various sums of money ranging from $30,000 to N200,000 and 30,000 as ransom. They also furnished different account numbers as details for receiving the ransom.” Aderanti further explained that numerous suspects were arrested but the breakthrough came when a decoy team of SARS, led by the Officer-in-Charge of SARS, Abba Kyari, arrested Okorie. He said: “Through him, contact was established with the gang’s member in Libya, which led to the safe return of the victim to Lagos on April 24, 2014, almost a year after the abduction of the teenager.” Recalling how she was abducted, Okoro said that she was going back to school in Ogun State when she ran into some cult members who thought she had overheard their conversation. She said they beat her to the state of coma and even wanted to rape her. One of them however stopped others from molesting her. She said: “The guy, Seun, took me to his home and said that I should stay with him for two weeks until I was fit to go. He said I shouldn’t call anybody.” Okoro stayed with Seun for two weeks until the fateful day they both went out to buy drugs. It was that day that Okoro ran into her cousin. She narrated her ordeal to Okorie. Okorie took her to his home at Alaba area of Lagos State. When they got home, they met Daniel, Okorie’s friend who used to travel and work in Libya. Okorie said: “The last I saw Precious, she was just a little girl. That night we both went to my house. Daniel was there when she narrated her ordeal. After listening to her, Daniel suggested she should follow him to Libya. I was happy I would have somebody overseas. We all went to Alaba. It was there that Daniel gave me N10,000. I told him it was unfair of him to give me that amount despite the huge amount he collected from his friend.” Confessing further, he said that he lied to Okoro that he would tell her mother that she had gone to Libya with his friend Daniel. Ogbonna, a trader in Abia State, is a friend to Daniel and Okorie. Daniel travelled to Libya, sold the girl to Ogbonna’s brother and left for Dubai. Okorie stated: “When Precious got to Libya, she called me that she had been forced into prostitution. I told her to look for a way to escape. I was scared of what I had done.” Stating his own side of the story, Ogbonna said he did not know anything about the matter until he was arrested. He said: “I was approached by Kelvin and Daniel to give them my brother’s number who lives in Libya. I
did. Two days later, Daniel called me to tell me he has arrived in Libya.”