... He slept with my wife and ruined my marriage.
By Chioma Okezie-Okeh
Cyril Isong, a 36-year-old man, is the leader of a gang of suspected kidnappers which allegedly specialises in luring unsuspecting victims to a spot, abduct them and demand ransom from their family members. Their modus operandi, it was gathered, is to rent short let apartments in highbrow areas in Abuja and woo their victims into believing that they are permanent residents with mouth-watering business opportunities.
Unfortunately for him, but luckily for the society, his reign of terror was brought to an end recently by operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT), a year after he abducted a member of the National Assembly (full names withheld).
According to our police source, the operatives acted on a petition addressed to the Inspector General of Police where the complainant had made a number of allegations. He had alleged that on August 4, 2020, he received a call from an unknown number and the caller, who introduced himself as Sani, claimed that he was a former member of the National Assembly between 2003 and 2005. He claimed that he was having health challenges and was advised to contact the complainant who was still working directly with the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The complainant claimed he was the one in charge of the affairs of former members of the house.
He said that he directed the caller to his house in Abuja but that the caller gave excuses that the illness no longer allowed him to move about. He then gave the complainant the address of an apartment in Asokoro and begged him to come.
He said upon getting to the apartment, he met two boys who introduced themselves as brothers to Sani. Convinced that he was at the right address, the complainant said he walked into the apartment but was immediately attacked. He was blindfolded and tied up.
According to him, his attackers took the N65,000 with him. They further searched his car, he claimed, and collected the $2000 dollars that the boys found in the car.
“They took all the valuables and demanded a number to call for ransom. I begged them and they eventually left,” he said. He claimed he was able to loosen himself and thereafter ran out to the Asokoro police station to report the matter.
On August 31, 2021, Cyril Isong was arrested in Akwa Ibom State.
It was in the course of investigation that they discovered that it was his gang that attacked two other victims whose cases were under investigation. One was his sister in-law and the other one his lover.
I went into crime when my marriage failed
A native of Akwa Ibom, Isong told Saturday Sun that it was frustration that he experienced when his marriage failed that lured him into crime.
Hear him: “I read Information Technology at the Federal University of Minna and got married in 2017. The first two years were beautiful and we travelled across the world for business and pleasure. I thought our marriage was made in heaven till COVID19 pandemic destroyed everything. We lost a lot of goods and I became indebted. Suddenly I noticed that my wife started locking her phones and as a computer guru, I was able to tap into her line and started reading her discussion with various men.
I was frustrated reading how she begged them for money. The Honourable, who we knew as Uncle P, was one of such persons. He even visited our house pretending to be a family friend. Unknown to him, I read their previous chats. He was having an affair with my wife. I made up my mind that I would deal with him. Pretending to be a good host, I collected his phone number.
It was his visit that led to the final break up of my marriage because I confronted my wife and she got angry and left. I quickly bought a new line and contacted him, pretending to be a woman.
He fell into my trap and agreed to visit me at home. I told him that I was so shy that I hated sleeping in the hotel with a man that is not my husband. Meanwhile I contacted some cultists that I knew in school to help me. They were the ones who arranged one beautiful girl who spoke to him through a video call.
“The apartment is a short-let one in an estate in Asokoro and it’s N80,000 a night. On the agreed date, he came and we grabbed him and tied him up. I did not speak throughout because he might recognise my voice. We searched him and took all the valuables and cash found on him and inside his car. He refused to call his family for more money; rather, he asked for our account number. I knew that he wanted to trap us so we decided to leave him and run. We ensured that his hands were loosened. No one touched him. It was at police station that I learnt that those boys that I hired also took dollars from his car.
“I travelled back to Akwa Ibom since I could no longer afford to pay house rent in Abuja. It was while I was in Akwa Ibom that my uncle based in US sent me to learn software engineering. I graduated and opened a website where I can train people. It was when I entered the bank to open an account that the police arrested me.”
On the other two cases, Isong said that it was all done within a month and he relocated to Akwa Ibom afterwards.
“The next was Tania who was running a restaurant. I knew her as an ordinary friend but when my wife left, we started dating. She closed down her restaurant and I helped her to sell all the valuables. I kept N300,000 and promised to give it to her but failed. She kept disturbing me and I knew that I would not pay because I was indebted. She is very rich and still refused to let go. I decided to handle her matter the same way I did to the honourable.
“I used another number and introduced educational tourism to her in case she wanted her daughter to study abroad. We lured her to an apartment and used the same method. We took only N80,000 cash that we found with her. She was so stubborn, so I told them to let her go.
The third person was my sister in-in-law. I always knew that one day, I needed to teach her a lesson. In the beginning, she was against our marriage and she was the one who helped my wife to pack her properties.
“She is into crypto currency and I used another number to call her pretending to be a successful business man. I told her to come to my apartment at Asokoro that I wanted to invest in her business. She arrived and I tied her up. We saw so much money in her dollar account but to withdraw would be hard. We just took the N500,000 cash that was found and disappeared.
It was after that one that I decided to stop and go back to Akwa Ibom. I felt bad because I knew the trauma that my victims faced. If I was not caught, I would be able to make at least N200,000 a day and pay back somehow since all my victims were known to me. I have been on a solo mood, trying to put the pieces of my life together. I promise to help the police to pick up the others who are still at large.”
0 Comments