U. O. Motors Limited, Chief Godwin Okeke,
yesterday, commenced his evidence-in-
chief at an Onitsha High Court in Anambra
State, presided over by Justice Chudi
Nwankwo, in respect of his abduction by kidnappers in Onitsha on Sunday, August 23,
2009. Okeke who spoke under oath, shortly after
the court granted a motion to file and serve
additional prove of evidence with respect to
one of the suspected kidnappers, Alexander
Onyinanya, filed by the prosecution
counsel, Chris Ajugwe with Mrs. N. D. Wilcox. He narrated his encounter with the
kidnappers at the All Saints Anglican
Church Cathedral, Onitsha when he went
for a Sunday worship with his wife, driver
and some family members. However, counsel to the first and third
accused persons, O. U. Uduma and J. N.
Okongwu, did not object to the prosecution
counsel's motion to file and serve additional
prove of evidence with respect to the third
accused, Onyinanya. Led in the evidence by his counsel, Okeke
stated that he went for 7 a.m. service which
ended at about 10 a.m, adding that between
10.30 and 11 a.m., his wife mounted the
steering of his Nissan Amanda Spots Utility
Van, SUV, and was driving towards the church gate when suddenly, gunmen
blocked the car with a bus in front and a
Mercedes Benz car at the rear. Okeke told the court that before he could
ask questions, the gunmen started shooting
sporadically, adding that even though he
managed to disarm one or two of them, they
shattered his left leg, over-powered him,
drove away his wife and family members before bundling him into his SUV and
zoomed off with the abductors' vehicles
following. He said: "At Umuoji Road, my abductors
discovered that their tyres were deflated
during the exchange of fire with the
policemen and they quickly jumped out of
the vehicles, blocked the road, snatched two
other vehicles from their unsuspecting owners and transferred their arms and
ammunition, including 9 AK 47 riffles,
rocket launchers, machine guns and a big
Ghana-must-go bag filled with loaded
magazines and live cartridges into the
snatched vehicles. "They continued their journey and drove
through Alor, Adazi-Ani and Adazi-Enu. On
getting to somewhere between Adazi-Enu
and Neni communities in Anaocha Local
Government Area of the state, they drove
into a bungalow, rounded up the occupants, who were mainly children, locked them up in
one of the rooms and kept me inside the
living room. "I removed my shirt and tied my bleeding leg
as part of measures to control the blood
gushing out from the bullet wound. At a
stage, I became thirsty and requested them
to give me water to drink. Two of the
abductors, Emeka Eze and Anthony Ifeanyi Okafor were with me while others were
outside monitoring movements." He said the duo with him advised him not to
drink water because of his bullet wound but
he insisted on drinking and eventually they
gave him the water which he drank. He said: "I overheard those outside asking
the detained children where they kept oil,
salt and other condiments because at that
point, they had started cooking breadfruit
meal for lunch. He said after cooking, they presented the
food and he ate with them. He said among
those outside, two of them, a tall and short
one wore masks, adding that he could
discover that the tall one, Alexander
Onyinanya, the third accused with mask was his former employee "I could identify Onyinanya because he
limps as a result of an accident he had when
he was working for me. I was the one who paid
his hospital bill when he had the accident. "After eating the breadfruit meal, they
praised me for my courage and for accepting
their food, unlike other victims who usually
refuse to eat during their captivity." He said they now asked him to get ready for
negotiation to which he paid attention. "They told me that Chief Paul Okonkwor,
Managing Director of Pokobros Group West
Africa Limited paid them N70 million as
ransom when they kidnapped him, while
Chief Anthony Enukeme, Managing Director
of Tonimas Oil Limited paid them N80 million during his own time and told me to
pay them N100 million. "I replied them promptly that Okonkwor
and Enukeme are millionaires, while I am a
billionaire, and offered them N1 billion,
instead of N100 million. "The offer gave them special joy as they
now dropped their weapons by the side,
relaxed and asked me how and when the
money would get to them to which I told
them that the money was in the bank." At this stage, Justice Nwankwo ordered him
to stop for the day till the next adjourned
date. The court now adjourned the matter to
November 14, 26, 27, 28, December 2, 3, 4, 5
and 9, this year for accelerated hearing and
possible dispensation.
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