Felix Chukwuma Kanu, one of the gang members of notorious billionaire kidnapper Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, a.k.a.Evans, has given an insight into how they managed to travel in and out of the country undetected on many occasions.
Felix is one of the suspected kidnappers recently arrested and paraded along with Evans by the police. During the several years of manhunt for Evans, detectives revealed that Evans and some of his gang members usually travel out of the country after every successful operation.
Confirming detectives’ findings, Felix was found with several passports, three of which are valid Nigerian International passports with different names, which he had used to travel in and out of the country undetected. When one of the passport numbers was crosschecked with the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, it was discovered that the passport which was issued in Abeokuta, Ogun state, actually belongs to one Lukmon Fatimah.
Although police refers to him as the current right hand man of Evans, Kanu who is an indigene of Amaekpo in Ohafia, Abia State claims he is only an errand boy to Evans whom he met during a business transaction at Ajao Estate, Lagos.
In his confession at the police station, Kanu said: “I have spent several years in Malaysia with the hope to make ends meet. The fact is that it is not easy to survive in a foreign land and since I cannot sell my kidney, I decided go into drugs and yahoo yahoo. That is how boys are surviving over there. Unfortunately, I was caught and deported to Nigeria in 2014.
“I had to start life again; I went into sale of cars. It was in the process that I met Evans. He bought one of my cars and we got talking. I asked him how he was making his money and he told me the truth. This was how I became his errand boy, we only saw him whenever he wanted. All other communication was through phone call. He will call and direct you where to pick and drop anything of his choice for him.
“I knew he was a kidnapper but I tried my best to stay away from anything that concerns his main job. And after each assignment, he will give me about N100, 000. The highest money he has given me was N300, 000 which I collected after helping him to monitor one of his victims.”
On the use of multiple passports, Felix said the information in his original passport was already marked as bad the day he was deported. “I can no longer travel with my original passport because they will arrest me at the entry or exit point. All I did was to arrange with a friend to secure one for me. I also have agents at the exit point that will ensure that I do not pass through the normal protocol. Since there is no need to see one’s face, the system will only record that the owner travelled. This very passport is not for Nigeria immigration point, it’s for the country that I intend to travel to.
“I can easily enter Malaysia with this new passport. They do not have Nigeria’s database, so as long as I am able to cross our own border, they will assume that it is real. I wanted to start afresh with this new name and passport.
“Since I started working for Evans, I knew that the end was near when I read in the newspaper that a special taskforce was on ground to arrest Evans. Besides, Evans advised us to get multiple passports because our real names could be on immigration computer as wanted criminals. If not that they caught us, I was preparing to travel to South Africa when that pharmacist ran away. Evans advised us all to run as far as we can. In fact, one of my passports is still with my agent who promised to help me secure a South African Visa. I was waiting to pick it up when I was tracked and arrested by the police,” he said.
He further alleged that every member of their gang had secured different passports in preparation to flee the country when they were arrested. “I am not a notorious kidnapper as they are alleging neither have I seen any gun but I can assure you that I am an expert in computer business.”
When asked to name the persons who helped him to procure the passports, Felix said, “I don’t know their names and since it’s an illegal business, everyone is protecting himself. It is very easy, just travel to any of the states and try to process international passport. It’s very easy.”
Immigration Service reacts
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the NIS, Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI) James Sunday requested to see the passports before he could react. He promised to get back to the reporter and after several reminders, he failed to do so.
However a senior Immigration officer who spoke with Saturday Sun said that if the officers do their job properly, it will be difficult for one person to have two international passports with different names.
“We have had several cases like that because of some applicants who are in a hurry to pick their passports. The correct procedure for a new applicant is to wait for at least two days to enable the Immigration officer verify his claim.
I won’t be surprised if the passport in question is fake. In the era of E-passport, it is easier to detect fake passports. That is why those criminals have devised other means to cross the border with multiple identities. As long as no officer at the airport assists him, such a person will be detected at the point of exit or entry.
“We have been arresting them and this case will definitely not be different. Most of them get stuck when it’s time to renew their passport. This is why they keep changing names and going to different passport offices to acquire a new international passport.”
On how they manage to secure multiple valid passports, the officer said that what the bad eggs among them normally do is to pick an already existing number which can easily be got from their data bank. “He will imprint the number and the name of the applicant. Anyone with such a passport is quite aware that there is a sort of manipulation. For those who are not aware, the agents go as far as inviting the applicant into the finger print room, and at the end, his or her finger print will be erased. There is no shortcut in processing international passport”, the official further explained.
No comments:
Post a Comment