Government probes Nigerian kidnapper with Ghanaian passport

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has launched a full-scale investigation to unravel circumstances surrounding the acquisition of a Ghanaian passport by a notorious Nigerian kidnapper for himself and his wife and children.

Deputy Minister Charles Wiredu explained on Thursday June 22 that individuals found culpable would not be spared.

The Inspector General of Police for the Nigeria Police Force, Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, recently revealed that the kidnapper, who was arrested by the Nigerian Police two weeks ago, had a Ghanaian passport as well as properties and a family in Ghana.

The Nigerian IGP further stated that Chikwudubem Onwuamadike, known simply as Evans in Nigeria, has confessed to being a former drug trafficker. Mr Idris made the revelation at the West Africa National Security Conference at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra on Tuesday, 20 June, 2017.

“Last week, we arrested a kidnapper... He has houses in Ghana and his family is based here in Ghana and that’s the only kidnapper that kidnaps and demands ransom in dollars. He has collected about $6million so far in ransom and he can keep his victim for as long as six months even if it means paying this ransom in instalments. It’s sad that he keeps somebody for six months and doesn’t release the victim until that money is paid in full,” Mr Idris said.

“I was told his family is in Ghana and he has two houses in Ghana and I even have the addresses. Finally, the importance of actionable intelligence sharing cannot be overemphasised as today, through some exchange of information; Nigerians are celebrating the arrest of the Nigerian-Ghanaian. I say Nigerian-Ghanaian because he’s a Nigerian but he also has a Ghanaian passport and that is something you people have to look at.”

Responding to the issue, Mr Wiredu explained that the ministry has “launched a full-scale investigation into this matter”.

According to him, the National Security, police and other relevant agencies “are on top of this issue as some initial briefings were held on Wednesday, June 21”.

He said they have identified “the passport and the passport number and the name and it has now been established that the passport of the wife was issued in 2013 and [those] of the kids were issued in 2010”.

“We are going to go through the matter and find out who did the authentication. At the Passport Office, we have about eight other agencies. We have people from the police service, somebody from the BNI (Bureau of National Investigation), somebody from National Security, somebody from Controller and Accountant [General’s Department] as well as the Births and Deaths Registry, so at any stage what happened? You cannot do a passport without birth certificate. So who did the certificate? Who authenticated the birth certificate? Did they do due diligence before validating? It is a criminal matter and those found culpable will be brought to book,” he said in an interview with Joy FM.

He believed a proper national identification system would help address the lapses in acquiring passports in Ghana.