The Anambra State Police Command has rescued a 14-year-old student of the Federal Government Girls College, Onitsha, who was abducted and held hostage for 27 days.

The victim, who spoke in a police video recording, said she was on her way home to pick the things she needed to return to school when she ran into a man who claimed her face looked familiar.

Her words: “I was about to enter a Keke Napep (tricycle) when one man touched and said my face looks familiar to him and asked me where I was from, I said Ogidi; and he said he was also a native of Ogidi.

“Before I knew it, I was in his house and he refused to let me go till police rescued me.”

According to her, the man apart from repeatedly assaulting her sexually also beat her up.

A statement by the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Haruna Mohammed, said that the syndicate contacted the victim’s mother through SMS and demanded ransom of ten million Naira (N10,000,000) which was later reduced downward after much pleading by the mother.

He said that the suspects equally sent a First Bank account number 3120904371 bearing one John Blessing to the victim’s parent to deposit the ransom.

The statement partly reads: “On the 8/2/2020 at about 5:30pm,the Command Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) trailed and arrested at a their hideout in Ogidi the following syndicate, Onyemechi Aniobi ‘m’ aged 23 years,

Elochukwu Okudo ‘m’ aged 25 years and Pauline Elechi ‘f’ aged 24 years.

“Suspects had on the 12/1/2020 allegedly kidnapped a 14 year old girl in Onitsha and took her to an undisclosed location.

“Consequently, On the 30/1/2020, the syndicate contacted the victim’s mother through SMS and demanded for ransom of ten million Naira (N10,000,000) which was later reduced downward after much pleading by the mother.

“Suspects equally sent a First Bank account number 3120904371 bearing one John Blessing to the victim’s parent to deposit the ransom.”

Mohammed added that the victim who was held hostage for 27 days and allegedly raped severally by the suspects was rescued by the Police and taken to the hospital for medical examination.

He said that case was under investigation after which suspects would be charged to court for prosecution.

The mother of the victim, Mrs Onyechi Ukamaka, said she sent her daughter back to school on January 13, because she was living in the school hostel only to get news from her guardian the next day that her daughter was not in school.

She said: “After I got the message from her school guardian, I started looking for her to no avail until February 8th when SARS officers brought her home.

“Few days after she got missing, I got a message in my phone saying I should pay ten million to an account that was also sent to me if I want to see my daughter again.

“They later reduced it to sixty thousand naira and asked me to go and pay immediately and that I shouldn’t involve the police.”

Onyechi commended the police for doing a good work at rescuing her daughter saying that she never knew police could “work like this”.

The suspected kidnappers as paraded by Anambra Police Command. PHOTO: PAMEL EBOH / News Express

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