Two university graduates allegedly notorious for kidnapping residents within Makurdi metropolis have attributed their criminal actions to their inability to secure gainful employment years after leaving school.
The duo of Magudu Harris, 36, Anyam Terhemen, 34 were on Tuesday paraded alongside another gang member, Paul Keghuur, 27, by the police in Benue State for abducting two women.
Their operation was bursted by security operatives following the attempted kidnap of a lawmaker in Makurdi.
Harris, a 2006 graduate of Industrial Chemistry from the Federal University of Agriculture in Makurdi and the four-man kidnap gang leader, said he took to the crime after things really became too hard for him.
The suspect admitted to the crime during an interview with Daily Trust at the Police Headquarters in Makurdi, while being paraded with two other members of his gang.
“What the police commissioner has said about me was the truth. I have kidnapped two people. I took to the crime when things became really hard for me because I haven’t been able to secure a job since leaving school. Things became worst after I got married and now I have two kids,” Harris said.
In the same vein, Terhemen, a 2011 Psychology graduate of the Benue State University in Makurdi who owns the Golf car which the gang used for the kidnapping, though claimed he was yet to get job, however blamed his bad behaviour on the devil.
Terhemen said: “it is the work of the devil otherwise my family provides everything for me. I had served the mandatory youth corps in Imo State and took to carpentry since I couldn’t find a job.”
Meanwhile, the State Police Commissioner, Ene Okon, explained that the gang led by Harris were apprehended few days ago by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) monitoring unit team from Abuja in collaboration with FSARS personnel of the Benue State command following an intelligence tips.
The commissioner noted that three persons of the four-man gang were arrested while the fourth one said to be in possession of their dangerous weapons is still at large, stressing that the gang was notorious for terrorising innocent residents of Makurdi and its environ.
He particularly mentioned the case of a female Civil Defence Officer who they trailed to her church and abducted her while returning home.
They also kidnapped one Mrs Veronica Jirgba whom they collected the ransom of N1million before her release last week.
Okon said further investigation revealed that the gang usually blindfolded their victims and took them to a building being erected by the gang leader from the proceeds of the illicit trade at North bank suburb of Makurdi.
The police commissioner therefore warned residents and landlords to be careful about the kind of artisans they engage to fix things in their house as he recalled that the third member of the gang, Kerghuur, was hired as a carpenter who earlier worked in the home of one of their victims.
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