‘How kidnappers killed, dumped my 15-yr-old son in well after collecting N1.5m ransom’

Mr. Eguaku Anya, father of a 15-year-old boy on Wednesday narrated how kidnappers abducted his son, Stephen Anya, killed him and dumped the body inside a shallow well after receiving N1.5million ransom for his release.

The prime suspect in the crime, one Joseph Sylvester was among the 207 kidnappers and other criminal suspects paraded by the Kaduna State Police Command on Wednesday.

Mr. Anya while speaking with journalist said the kidnappers who broke into his house, kidnapped his son, destroyed valuable properties and took away their phones and laptop computer.

“The kidnappers initially demanded for N40 million before they finally agreed on N1m,” he said.

According to him, “On the 27th of May, 2020, this boy (Sylvester) and the other person came into my house and damaged a lot of things.

“They took away our phones, my laptop, my daughter’s phone and in addition, they abducted my own son in my car and left.

“They were two that came into the house. They even said they will drop my son immediately they leave the house as I was pleading with them. One of them lives in my area at Gonigora.

“My son is 15 years. My son scored 245 in JAMB he passed WAEC and NECO, only for him to enter school.

“They (kidnappers) stayed for a long time before contacting us and when they collected ransom, they switched off the phone. When they finish the money, they called back and began to demand for another money.

“The first amount they demand was N40 million. So as we negotiated we brought it down to N5 million and again it came to one million Naira. They collected that and said its not enough, so we added N500,000.

“And all this while, we have been begging them let us hear the boy’s voice, but as soon as they collected money, they switched off the phone.

“Eventually they demanded for another N1.5 million and we agreed that we will rally round and get it for them, but on the condition that we hear the boy’s voice and you release him to us, not knowing that they had killed the boy already the following day after the kidnap.

“It was only God that saved me and my brother that went to give them the money, they could as well have killed or abducted us. That was when we went and alerted the anti kidnapping unit and FCID.

“These units worked so hard and its very commendable. Have never seen such swift action before. Within three days, they rounded them up.

“Meanwhile, as events were unfolding, I remembered that this boy (Sylvester) use to sit around my house. I will come out and see a boy alone. I never knew the boy was monitoring me, he knows where my dogs are, the time I put on and put off my generating set.

“He called the other person to accompany him in killing my son.

“They killed him and dumped him in a well – that is the most gruesome way of killing person.

“Not only that he was killed but in a gruesome way. The effect of that still attacks me every time when I think about what my son could be thinking before he was killed. It is terrible,” he said.

In his defence, the prime suspect, Sylvester denied the crime saying, “I don’t know anything about the kidnapping. I only kept someone (his accomplice) in my house not knowing he is a kidnapper.

“I stay in Gonigora and my residence is close to a company he (the accomplice) said he came to work.

“He said that he was looking for room and all the apartment in my house were occupied.

“We searched another place for him to stay and we couldn’t get, that was how he started staying with me.

“He gave me N7,000 and stayed with me for 3 weeks after that, he traveled back for almost up to a year,” he said.

Commenting on the case, the Command’s Spokesman, ASP Muhammad Jalige said the suspects after killing their victim, dumped his body in a shallow well and threw in about 20 building blocks to prevent the corpse from floating.