Two warders of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Delta State Command, are currently wallowing in regret.
The warders, DCIP Anthony Nketan, 55, and SPA Justice Oveto, 34, are currently facing prospects of serving time in prison if found guilty of the role they played in providing easy access for an inmate in the prison who reportedly went out on three occasions to hold meetings in a hotel room with members of his kidnap gang who thereafter went about wreaking havoc across Delta State.
According to Saturday Sun, the bubble burst on their illicit activity as police detectives who had been on the trail of the gang caught them red-handed at the scene of the meeting.
The inmate, Stanley Erujere, 32, currently serving 21 years jail term in Okere Prisons, Warri, was arrested by police officers inside Omaks Hotel, situated at No. 40 Ginuwa road, Warri. With him was Oveto, the warder who escorted him from the prison to the hotel. The pair later indicted DCIP Nketan, as the man who provided them with the pass that facilitated their exit from the prison.
Other infernal facts came to light. Erujere had been using his phone to make calls inside the prison yard to call and rally his gang members to plan series of kidnappings. With easy passage from his confinement facilitated by the wardens, he had been able to meet members of his gang to plan and execute kidnap operations.
Each time Erujere went out, to the hotel and back to the prison yard, he rewarded Nketan and Oveto with N3,000 and N2,000 respectively. The kingpin had gone out of the prison yard three times to hold meetings with his gang at the hotel which culminated into three kidnappings in Warri and Asaba respectively before detectives busted the gang on June 22, 2018.
The indicted warder, SPA. Justice Oveto, a native of Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, enlisted in the Nigeria Prisons Service and trained in Owerri, Imo State in 2010 before he was posted to Okere Prisons, Warri, Delta State.
He told Saturday Sun:
“Since June 25, 2018, myself and one of the inmates, Stanley Erujere had been going out of the prison yard in Warri together to Omaks Hotel, Warri. It was my boss. DCIP. Anthony A. Nketan who gave me pass permit and ordered me to follow the inmate to the hotel.
“We had gone out of the prison yard three times. It was on the third occasion that detectives arrested us at the hotel.
I thought the inmate, Stanley Erujere, was there to see his relatives. I did not know that he and his gang members were meeting and planning kidnap operations in the hotel. We usually spent two hours in the hotel before going back to the prison yard.”
Oveto claimed:
“My boss has been denying me since we were arrested. He knows everything, especially, how Stanley has been going out of the prison yard to relax himself in the hotel.”
DCIP Anthony Nketan, on the other hand, tried to wash himself clean of the accusations. The 55-year-old who hails from Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State told Saturday Sun he had no idea about what was going on.
According to Nketan who joined the Nigeria Prison Service in 1986, it was “my duty and authority to give a pass to allow any inmate to go out of the prison yard.”
He said: “It was in the month of June I allowed one of my warders/ clerks, SPA. Justice Oveto and the inmate Stanley Erujere to go out of the prison yard since I gave the pass permit. I did not know the mission of the inmate. I thought he wanted see his relatives. I did not know that they went to a hotel to see their gang members until when I was arrested and heard the truth of the matter.”
Delta State Commissioner of Police Muhammed Mustafa confirmed to Saturday Sun that detectives succeeded in arresting five men suspected of being members of a kidnap gang that had terrorized Asaba, Ughelli and Warri. Two kingpins of the gang are still at large, he affirmed.
The police boss also reeled out some of the past crimes allegedly perpetrated by the suspects.
On April 22, 2018, the gang allegedly attacked and kidnapped one Ejiroghene Omu at Jakpa road, Warri. From him they collected a ransom of two and a half million naira. They also robbed him of his Toyota Highlander jeep.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
