The Bayelsa state Commissioner of Police, Ben Okolo, has disclosed that arrested kidnap kingpin, John Ewa, popularly known as “John Lyon”, was dismissed from the bank where he served as a cleaner after he was caught on camera stealing money.
John Ewa, who was arrested in Abuja and said to be responsible for high-profile kidnappings in Bayelsa State, was paraded alongside three members of his gang by the state police command on Tuesday, September 26.
Speaking to newsmen during the parade, the Police Commissioner said the group on December 8 kidnapped a bank manager, one Akeeb Oladele Olushola, 48, from his residence at Old Commissioners Quarters, Opolo.
He was released on the 12th of December after paying a ransom of eighty (N80) million naira. He said similarly, the group also abducted one Danjuma Omeje, 41, a manager of a new generation bank in Yenagoa, who was kidnapped at his residence at Okaka, Yenagoa, on 30th, 2022.
Omeje was later released on July 14th, 2022 after paying a ransom of 60 million naira; thirty (30) million naira in cash and the US dollar equivalent of thirty (N30) million naira.
Ewa confessed to having collected ten thousand US dollars from the ransom collected in the kidnap of Danjuma Omeje.
Speaking on TVC this morning, Ben Okolo said Ewa was dismissed from the bank where he worked as a cleaner after he was caught on camera stealing bundles of naira notes.
“He was a former staff of a New generation bank. They laid him off since 2003. They caught him pilfering. Sometimes customers go home and the bundles will not be complete. They set up a CCTV and caught him that he was pilfering. He is no more working in the bank but he has knowledge of the people, where they live and it is their residents that he actually monitored.” Okolo said.
