Bulacan cops nab 3 Nigerian nationals for kidnapping compatriots

POLICE arrested three Nigerian nationals who were linked to a kidnapping syndicate targeting victims of same nationality a day after their captives escaped and sought police help in Bulacan province.

After seven days in captivity, the victims of the suspects – Ifeanyi Augustine Chinwueba, Martin Okofor and Austin Chukwueba Agu – escaped and reported the kidnapping to local police in Pulilan municipality on Tuesday.

The victims then accompanied operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Group and Pulilan Police Station to the safehouse of the suspects in Plaridel municipality, Bulacan.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Philippine National Police said the foreign suspects demanded a ransom of 6 million Nigerian dollar (equivalent to over P1 million) from the victims, whose identities were withheld.

When the victims went missing, a British lawyer based in London reported to the AKG that his nephews were kidnapped upon their arrival in the Philippines via Turkish Airlines.

Acting on the complaint, the AKG then formed and dispatched tracker teams to locate the victims.

This was not the first time Chinwueba, Okofor and Agu  were linked as perpetrators of abduction incidents with Nigerian nationals as victims.

They were also responsible in the kidnapping of Osuoha Ikenna Amaefule and Onyedeke Ferdinand Munachiso last June 9.

Both victims were kidnapped the same day they arrived in the country to study in San Fernando, La Union province.

Senior Superintendent Roberto Fajardo, AKG director, said investigators are now studying the background of the Nigerian suspects in cooperation with Interpol, Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Fajardo said the AKG will also probe similar cases where other foreigners abduct victims of same nationality upon arriving in the Philippines.

A case of Kidnap for Ransom under Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code against the arrested suspects will be filed before the Department of Justice. AC