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Reading from Vanguard shows it was originally, police-engineered extortion scheme”
Background of the case, according to Vanguard Newspaper online: Written by Emma Nnadozie (Asst. Crime Editor), Innocent Anaba, Abdulwahab Abdulah and Rita Nwafor Monday, 23 February 2009
The arraignment of the fake journalist, Steve Chinua-Ogwu, an ex-policeman who was dismissed for theft by the police and the second suspect yesterday was a climax to an incredible story which started on July 20th, 2007 when Steve Chinua-Ogwu who claimed to be a crime reporter with Westerner Newspapers, Lagos came to the office of the Publisher of Vanguard Newspapers, Mr. Sam Amuka at Kirikiri Canal, Apapa, Lagos and showed him terrifying photographs of his wife, Mrs. Oyindamola Amuka in which she was carrying ritualistic materials in a shrine. Mr. Steve Chinua-Ogwu told Mr. Amuka that he also had video copies of the wife‘s meeting with some native doctors in Ikorodu area of Lagos State and threatened to publish the materials if Mr. Amuka failed to provide money for the story to be suppressed and finally killed. After hearing his story, Mr. Amuka discreetly stepped aside and invited the Police at Kirikiri. In a statement he made to the Police at Kirikiri, Mr. Amuka stated the circumstance of his meeting with the so-called crime reporter including the fact that his wife had traveled to London and had refused to return to Nigeria as she expressed fear of a possible elimination by some unknown men. Steve Ogwu-Chinua was subsequently arrested and he confessed in his written statement to the Police that the photographs were given to him by one Superintendent of Police, Jonathan Babatunde when he was the officer-in-charge of D13, Monitoring Unit at the Lagos State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba. The officer who was then on transfer to Surulere as the Divisional Crime Officer was invited to the Police station where he confessed that one of his personal friends popularly known as Mr. Lexus (Alhaji Rasheed Alayande) had visited his office when he was the officer-in-charge of D13 at the SCID, Panti and, in confidence, introduced a case of Obtaining By Trick (OBT) in which they could make some money. He further stated that having been convinced, a petition was written and approved and thereafter, he detailed one Sgt. Beke Ezeh, Patrick Arawumi and Woman Police Constable, Toyin Omojola to accompany Mr. Lexus to Ikorodu for the assignment. He also said that one Steve Chinua-Ogwu who had been parading himself as a crime reporter incidentally visited his office and was co-opted in the deal after he made it clear to him (Steve) that they were out to make money from the operation. Mr. Jonathan specifically stated that the inclusion of Steve Chinua-Ogwu was particularly targeted at making Mrs. Amuka to part with a reasonable sum of money and that this was explained to Steve and he wholeheartedly agreed. Mr. Jonathan further confessed that at Ikorodu, Mrs. Amuka was handcuffed and taken to a shrine where obscene photographs were forcefully taken by Steve Chinua-Ogwu and thereafter Mrs. Amuka was brought to his office where the printed pictures were shown to her. He stated that Steve Chinua-Ogwu played a major role by identifying himself as a crime Reporter and threatened to publish the photographs in all the Newspapers in Nigeria and Overseas if she failed to comply with their demand. He also said that Mrs. Amuka, in order to avert a scandalous publication, handed over the sum of N4 Million to him (Jonathan) as part payment and thereafter fled to London. Furthermore, Mr. Jonathan confessed that Mr. Lexus (Alhaji Alayande) and group were equitably given N2 million while the remaining N2 million was shared by himself and members of his team. According to him, all the parties were in one accord in the planning and sharing of their loot but when Mr. Steve Chinua-Ogwu was given the sum of N100,000.00 (One Hundred thousand Naira), he felt cheated and reported the matter to Mr. Sam Amuka requesting for monetary compensation failure which he would face scandalous publication of his wife as a ritualist with the accompanying photographs which he claimed exclusive ownership of. Detectives who were investigating the case also arrested all those mentioned in the case by both Mr. Jonathan and Steve. Those arrested included: Sgt. Beke Eze; Sgt. Patrick Arawunmi; Woman Constable Tosin Omojola, Shola Kehinde (the Film Editor), Wale Adegboyega (Film Producer), Moshood Alayande, Alhaji Rasheed Alayande alias Mr. Lexus, (the Film Director) and Muyiwa Alayande. All the suspects confessed to their involvement in the deal and gave vivid details of how it was executed and the accruable loot therefrom. The Police subsequently wrote a report indicting all the suspects and thereafter proceeded to recommend their arraignment in a court of competent jurisdiction. The Police also stated in their report that because Mr. Jonathan had volunteered a written undertaking to refund the sum of N4 million extorted from Mrs. Amuka to the husband and having considered that SP Jonathan had put in 30 years of service with the force and in consonance with the Advance Fee Fraud and fraud related offences, Decree No. 13 of 1995 (now an Act of Parliament), Restitution could be employed as a means of treating the matter and that by so doing, crime will be seen as a non-rewarding venture. Based on this, some of the suspects including Steve Chinua-Ogwu gladly refunded the money they got from their loot but Mr. Jonathan failed to complete the refund of his own share. Subsequently, the Police further recommended that appropriate action be taken towards the prosecution of the suspects in a court of competent jurisdiction with a proviso that Mrs. Amuka who had run to London for safety after the suspects continued threatening and making more monetary demands from her, should return home for her evidence in the orderly room trial of the Police officers and men involved in the crime including other suspects. The Police stated that her evidence would also sustain the appropriate charges so that criminal proceedings would commence without further delay. Most importantly, one of the suspects, Muyiwa Alayande (11), the son of Alhaji Alayande, the film Director who was supposed to have been murdered for ritual purposes confessed that the so-called photograph with a bodiless head was his image which was recorded by both Steve Chinua-Ogwu and two other film makers on the instruction of his father. He further confessed that his father, a film Director, told him that they were going to act in a movie after which he took him into a bush, asked him to lie on the ground and used one white cotton material to cover him. He said he asked him to lie on a mat after which he held him on the head assisted by one woman and cow blood was poured on his head and his neck. According to him, after that, Steve Chinua-Ogwu who has been a regular visitor to their house with unknown faces took photographs of him in that position. He further said that when the picture showing only his head with blood stains being carried by the woman was shown to him, his father told him that it was meant for one of his films. His father corroborated this story and stated categorically that Steve Chinua-Ogwu and SP Jonathan masterminded the deal aimed at making money for themselves and that after Jonathan gave Steve N100,000.00, he (Steve), came to complain bitterly insisting that they all should complete his own part of the loot or he would blow the whole deal open. While efforts were being made to appeal to Mrs. Amuka, who was not only traumatized by the incident but living perpetually in fear in London based on continued threat by some members of the deadly and notorious syndicate to kill her if she stepped her foot in Nigeria again, some of the suspects refunded part of their loot to the Police implicitly admitting guilt. In fact, the suspects who were making refund proceeded discreetly to reach Mrs. Amuka in her hideout in far-away London where they succeeded in extorting another £20,000.00 from her with threats to eliminate her in London also. This compounded all efforts being made for Mrs. Amuka to return and make statements that would lead to the prosecution of the suspects. While this was ongoing, Mr. Steve Chinua-Ogwu, collaborated with one Lagos-based lawyer to petition the Inspector-General of Police, this time, making all sorts of frivolous allegations against both the Police and Mr. Amuka. This was after he (Steve) signed an undertaking not to blackmail, extort or publish any material on the issue. After receiving the petition to the IGP, Police authorities directed Zone 11, Onikan to investigate the matter but the detectives, after going through the files and their confessional statements, wrote a report discountenancing all the allegations made by Steve and his lawyer, Barr. Giwa Amu. In the petition, they also copied almost all the relevant agencies and authorities in Nigeria but investigations showed that it was all a ruse as none of those copied officially got such petition. The seemingly last effort by Mr. Steve to achieve his act was during a meeting with one of the Crime Reporters in Vanguard where he openly expressed sadness at the refusal of the other suspects to ‘settle him‘ and ended up saying that they have continued to milk He went further to request that the reporter should prevail on Mr. Amuka to offer him a job in his Newspaper promising to help him in rounding up all those that connived with him to extort money from his wife. The reporter bluntly chided him for making such requests and advised that he should stay away from both Mr. Amuka and his wife. Few months later, Mr. Steve Chinua-Ogwu internationalized the blackmail and extortion game by co-opting other principals at www.pointblanknews.com to harass Mr. Amuka with online publication of blatant lies and fallacies on the same case. The characters at www.pointblanknews.com not only serialised the falsehood but their agents made several monetary demands on Mr. Amuka. They resorted to making secret contacts and overtures aimed at luring Mr. Amuka to part with money if he wanted the story killed. Not done with this blackmail, they sent the false story to almost all the media houses in Nigeria and beyond and went further to post it to individual journalists on their e-mail addresses. While this latest attempt at blackmail was going on, Mrs. Amuka returned to Nigeria after being assured of her safety and proceeded straight to make statements to the Police on her ordeal. In her statement, she claimed that she was introduced to one Islamic cleric popularly called Alfa by one of her friends when she was looking for cure for a strange ailment that befell her son. According to her, she was later taken to Ibadan and Ikorodu by the Alfa in search of cure. She said that at that stage, based on the open threats by Steve Chinua-Ogwu whom she claimed was performing a conspicuous role as a Crime Reporter and SP Jonathan, she was afraid and succumbed by paying them N4 million. She said she was afraid of telling her husband or anybody because they warned her that she would be killed the moment she disclosed it because she was on oath. Mrs. Amuka further said that she absconded to London for safety only to be confronted over there, through telephone calls, by the same group who continued threatening to eliminate her in London. She then had to part with another £20,000.00 and that all efforts made by the family to bring her home to enable Police prosecute the suspects failed because she was afraid for her life. According to her, the blackmailers vowed to eliminate her at any of the airports in Nigeria if she decided to return to Nigeria for their prosecution. Mrs. Amuka said it was only the concerted efforts from her husband and family who threatened to use the International Police to bring her back to Nigeria that gave her the courage to return home and face the consequence. Meanwhile, SP Jonathan could not be arrested as he was said to have absconded overseas.
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