An English Education graduate of University of Calabar (UNICAL), Andrew Ogbeche, has admitted to facilitating his boss, Egbe Ediagbonya’s kidnap.
The former Commissioner for Sports’ corpse was found decomposing in a bush close to his farm 19 days after he was kidnapped on May 16. Prior to the discovery of his corpse, the kidnappers had demanded for a N15m ransom but got N1m.
Ogbeche, who worked as a labourer on Ediagbonya’s palm tree farm at Utese village in Okada area of the state disclosed that he got N100,000 out of the ransom.
Confessing to the crime, the English graduate said he was aware of his ex-boss’ kidnap by one Paul and others but did not know about his murder.
He said: “I relocated to Edo after my graduation in 2013 in search of greener pasture. It’s because of financial constraint that I accepted to work as a labourer at the farm of the late commissioner.
“He owns a big Palm Oil farm at Okada village and I am one of his workers. The job was so demanding that I had to work twice everyday with about two hours break in-between the shifts.
“Despite all these, he could only afford to pay me N10,000 a month. I should have refused that offer but I needed money to feed. I had only worked for two months before I resigned and he is still owing me salary of one month.
“I had no plans to kidnap him until I became friends with one Paul and invited him to the farm. It was during one of his visits that he told me of his plans to kidnap my boss.
“I disagreed but he threatened to kill me. He later told me that he had kidnapped the man and sent N100,000 to me as my share. But I never knew that they killed the man probably because the commissioner saw his face.”