A 29-year-old lotto operator turned kidnapper, Uzordima Chukwudi, 29, who was arrested alongside some other members of his group over the kidnap of a woman in Imo State has revealed why he took to kidnapping.

According to Punch, the suspect who said he was studying Mechanical Engineering at the Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Imo State before dropping out in his final year, said,

“What led me into kidnapping was unfortunate. My girlfriend is pregnant and I have been under pressure to pay her bride price but I had no money. She told me that since she became pregnant her mother had been ostracised by her fellow women in their village. The pressure was too much that I needed to look for money by all means.”

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He added that when the pressure became unbearable, he contacted two of his friends; Nnamdi, who is now in prison, and Chiboy, who later introduced him to Agim for the trade. He continued,

“Agim, being a prison official, was the one making way for us whenever we approached a police check point but our first operation was not successful because the person we targeted escaped. But on the second operation, Chiboy went with a policeman and they kidnapped the woman.”

He said for his involvement in the deal and for taking food to the victim in the bush, he was given N100,000 as his share.

“Chiboy told me that he got only N1.1m from the woman but when we were arrested, the woman told us she paid N3m as ransom. The moment I got my own share, I gave my girlfriend part of it to start the preparation (for the wedding) while I went to the market to buy drinks. That was when I got a call from Agim and when I met him I was arrested,” he said.