Lance Corporals Musa Maidabra and Edwin George, serving at 122D30 Regiment in Maiduguri, Borno State, have been arrested for transporting the about N80m ransom that was paid for the release of the wife of the CBN Governor, Margaret Emefiele and three others abducted about two weeks ago.
The soldiers said they received N6.5m each as their share of the ransom. Maidabra and George, who were paraded alongside 7 others on Monday in Abuja, for alleged involvement in the kidnap, said they were paid the money for assisting the gang to transport the ransom to a hideout in Benin city.
Other suspects include a dismissed soldier, Ernest Uduefe; Mohammed Abubakar, Mohammed Musa, Mohammed Sule, Ibrahim Abdullahi, Aliyu Musa and Mohammed Yusuf. The Force P.R.O, Donald Awunah, said the police recovered N14,725,000, two Honda Accord cars, one Audi car and one AK-47 rifle and two cartridges from the gang.
He stated that two jeeps worth N1.5m and N4m were recovered from Maidabra; while a Honda Accord estimated at N1.1m bought from his share of the ransom was recovered from George. Awunah explained that detectives recovered N7.7m from Aliyu Musa, out of his N10m share.