Information reaching us has it that, an army officer and another ex-soldier formed part of gang who disguised themselves as Joint Security Taskforce that kidnapped, dispossessed and murdered one Leo Michael Ishaya, who until his death, was a resident of Owerri, Imo State.
A reliable source told THE DAILY VENDOR correspondent that, on the 3rd of April 2020, Mr Micheal Ishaya (aka Leo) a native of Bogoro Local Government Area in Bauchi State, but resides in Imo state was arrested by some men who claimed to be joint taskforce (Military and SARS) at about 17:30 hours around the Orji flyover in Owerri shortly after the victim dropped his friend at Rochas College of Africa roundabout.
It was further gathered that, the deceased after his arrest drove with the supposedly Joint Taskforce, thinking they were taking him into custody over an unknown offense not knowing they were kidnappers.
The source said, another young man who was picked up by the same ‘Joint Taskforce’, but was later released after he made a bank transfer of N50,000 which they demanded, recognized Leo, and later alerted some friends of he’s who he felt knew Leo when he heard the news of his disappearance.
It was further revealed that armed with the information, friends of Leo on Monday morning, went to the Imo state police headquarters to make their complaints and the command sent out a radio signal to every division in the state, and after 24 hours of no positive response, the case was officially reported to the SARS department of the state command who took action immediately and started critical investigation to track of the culprits
It was learnt that some of the suspects were arrested and they confessed to the crime stating that the boy has been murdered and his corpse dumped at Oba in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State.
However, on Wednesday the police informed the family of the deceased who joined the police to the crime scene and the body was recovered where it was dumped and deposited at FMC Mortuary Owerri.
It was also disclosed that, the alleged security gang killed Leo somewhere in Anambra and escaped to Makurdi in Benue state with his properties ranging from his Lexus ES350 car, IPhone, clothes, Apple wristwatch and emptied his bank account.
Using the bank account details which one of the fake Joint Taskforce member gave to the young man whom they picked and later released after transferring N50,000 that guaranteed his freedom, the SARS operatives were able to establish the identity of one of the suspects which turned out to be a serving army officer, through him his two other gang members were apprehended, with one being an ex-soldier, who was dismissed from the military since 2018.
The dismissed army officer was said to be the one who took the SARS operatives to the place where Leo was killed few hours after his kidnap. He also disclosed that two of his other team mates used a very big stone to hit Leo on the head after they took everything he had on him and in his bank account.
