(NEWS) Kidnappers Kills Pharmacist

THE resurgence of criminal activities in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, has led to the murder of a popular pharmacist and owner of Godel Pharmacy, Mr. Godwin Eze Nwosu, by unknown gunmen who kidnapped the businessman last Wednesday and placed a N50 million ransom on him.

Nwosu was kidnapped at the entrance to his home after closing from his shop situated at 1 Zik Avenue, Abakaliki, minutes after his police escorts left.

Although information about the payment of N2 million ransom to the abductors by close family members could not be confirmed, sources disclosed that even before the money was handed over to the abductors, there were indications that the businessman had been murdered.

It was also gathered that the decomposing body of Mr. Nwosu was discovered opposite the state secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) along Enugu-Abakaliki Expressway by security operatives on patrol.

Also a source within the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki told journalists that the corpse of the deceased was brought to the morgue of the hospital in a decomposing state in the early hours of yesterday adding that efforts were on by the department of State Security Services to track down the kidnappers at the time of the shocking discovery.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Ebonyi State Command, Mr. Sylvester Igbo, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) disclosed that the incident was not officially reported to the Police but to the SSS, explaining that he was yet to get more details on the killing of the popular businessman.

Though the police could not react to insinuations that security personnel assigned to the late pharmacist seem to have a hand in the abduction plot, neighbours around Mr. Nwosu’s residence at Nna Street said that “Nwosu’s abduction and murder must be an insider job”.

It would be recalled that Mr. Nwosu had been on the trail of some assailants which prompted the Commissioner of Police to advise that he settles for security details to guard his shop and escort him home always.

Sources also said that the fact that the pharmacist supplies drugs to the former Federal Medical centre, (FMC) Abakaliki, now Federal Teaching Hospital, must have raised a lot of envious colleagues around him.

Not long ago, two months ago precisely, Cletus Nwezza, a Permanent Secretary and father of former Special Adviser to Governor Martin Elechi on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was kidnapped and later killed by his abductors. Ebonyi has a law against kidnapping and terrorism that attracts capital punishment.

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