The Edo State Police Command has accused eight suspects of kidnapping over 20 passengers and two Nigerian Railway Corporation employees on January 7, 2023, following a gunman attack on the Igueben Train Station in Edo Central.
The police announced on Wednesday that two village heads and five people had been arrested in connection with the crime, but that all of the victims had been rescued.
The police charged the suspects, Ibadin Hamilton, Ighoko Odion, Okojie Ewa, Okie Patrick, Friday Ighedujiemu, Halilu Umaru, Aminu Ibrahim, and Isah Aliyu, for criminal conspiracy and kidnapping in a court document obtained exclusively by our correspondent.
The Legal Section State Criminal Investigation Department, Police Headquarters, Benin City, filed the charge sheet on January 17, 2023.
Odion, 62, Ewa, 58, Patrick, 42, Ighedujiemu, 51, Hamilton, 59, Umaru, 28, Ibrahim, 25, and Aliyu, 25, all male, conspired to abduct the victims in exchange for N20 million from their family as a ransom for their release, according to the affidavit.
