OKONJO-IWEALA’S MOTHER: POLICE ARREST PALACE GUARD

ASABA —
POLICE have seized a 36-year-old palace guard and suspected kidnap kingpin,
alleged to have facilitated the abduction of Prof. Kamene Okonjo, mother of the
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, last December, in Ogwashi-Uku,
Delta State by kidnappers.

DeltaState
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, who confirmed the arrest of the
suspect, Chiejine, to Vanguard, yesterday, said: “While the police in
DeltaState were after him, the Lagos State Police Command was also after him
for some criminal offences, so we have handed him over to them.”

He said the police did not have a hand in the
Okonjo-Iweala mother kidnap  until he was arrested by the police, last
week,  after a shootout in  EdoState  in connection with the
death of 71-year-old Mrs. Regina Obi after collecting N2 million ransom from
her family.

Police shot dead one of the suspected kidnappers
and arrested four others in separate operations in Benin City and Ogwashi-Uku

Aduba said the suspect, who worked in the palace
as a guard, confessed he was the one that brought the kidnappers to the palace
to kidnap Prof. Okonjo.

He said Chiejine’s house in Ogbe-Ofu quarters,
Ogwashi-Uku was demolished when it was confirmed he was a kidnapper.

Aduba stressed the need for people to be careful
of the kind of people they employ as guards, saying: “This is the problem we
have now, for practically every kidnap, there is an inside factor. Chiejine is
very close to them in the palace and he is the one that brought the
kidnappers.”