The Billionaire-Kidnapper, Chukwudi Onuamadike aka Evans, was once arrested in Lagos state
A Senior police officer who arrested the kingpin and his gang in 2006, reveals that a rift borne out of greed led to Evans’ arrest in Imo
According to the officer, Evans and his gang fell out as they were sharing the loot from a robbery attack A senior police officer whose name has been concealed to protect him from prosecution, has said that Evans was arrested in Imo state, but regained freedom afterwards.
He told newsmen that Evans was arrested in 2006, after his gang of robbers attacked a commercial bank in Lagos. According to the source which spoke to The Punch, the robbers went somewhere around the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, to share the loot. While sharing the loot, the robbers had a disagreement and shot one another.
Seven members of the gang died instantly. The then Divisional Police Officer of Iponri Police Station, Yahaya Bello, now a deputy commissioner of police, was in the know of the incident, the sources claimed.
According to the Senior officer, it was confirmed that one of the members of the gang arrested then was Chukwudi Onuamadike, popularly known as Evans.
“If you look at his chest, I cannot remember whether it is the right or left side, there is a scar. It was as a result of the gunshot from his gang members that day. He bled and there was no way he could run away before the police came.
The case was transferred to the Lagos State Anti-Robbery Squad. We investigated and discovered that they were armed robbers. Evans led the team. We also went to Mbidi Police Station, Imo state, to carry out an investigation on them. We were able to arrest two other members of the gang.
We then had five of them in police custody” the source informed. Reacting to prosecution of “Evans the robber”, the source said a certain policewoman at the Band Section of the Police College, Lagos, made attempts to have the criminal released.
The lady known as Tina, a superintendent of police, insisted that “we should drop the case and that Onuamadike (Evans) was her brother. But when she was unable to achieve her aim, she travelled to Imo state.” Not long after, police in Lagos state, got a message from the Imo state police command saying that they had been searching for Evans and asked for the robber’s case to be transferred.
The source reports that the Imo state command said they would continue from where the investigations had stopped in Lagos. “Since that time, we did not hear anything. We heard he was later released there,” said the source.
The senior police officer further stressed that Evans was not the only one released, other members were most likely set free. “The request was that we should transfer the case to them. We sent him and two members of his gang to the command.
There is a hotel in Okota area where they used to meet to share their loot. The owner of the hotel was their friend. There was a time they robbed three banks in Alaba International Market in 2005.
They also looted shops there. One of the owners of the shop complained to the police and we carried out an investigation.
We discovered that some of the items stolen in the man’s shop were digital cameras. We traced the cameras to the hotel and into the office of the hotel owner. It was then that ‘big men’ started calling from everywhere that we should drop the charges against them. The owner of the hotel was later killed by the robbers, following a disagreement.
His body was dumped by the roadside in one of the states in the East sometime ago”. Advising the police on how to go about Evans’ case, the source said a proper investigation must be carried out.
The senior officer noted that Evans links in South Africa, Ghana, and other African countries. In a similar vein, a soldier in the Nigerian army, lance corporal Victor Chukwunonso, has allegedly been arrested by the police for being a gang member of the notorious kidnap kingpin, Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans.
Chukunonso, with Army No: 09/NA/64/6317 is attached to the Nigeria Army Band Corps, Abatti Barracks, Surulere, Lagos. Reports have it that he was arrested on Saturday by operatives of the inspector-general of Police Intelligence Response Team.