Operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) who rescued Mrs. Julie Mulligan, the Canadian who was kidnapped in Kaduna a fortnight ago, said yesterday that the release was carried out without any casualties and that no ransom was paid to the abductors.
The Canadian was held by her abductors at a private residence in Goningora, a satellite town on the Kaduna-Abuja express way.
The 45-year-old Rotarian, who was in Nigeria for a four-week Group Exchange Programme, was kidnapped at No 29 Unity Link Road Narayi, on the outskirt of Kaduna city on April 17 in the presence of his Nigerian host, Moses Kadeer.
The abductors first demanded N20 million before Mulligan could be released and later scaled their demand down to N5 million.
Narrating how the release of Mulligan was finally effected Wednesday, an operative of SSS told THISDAY that immediately the report of the kidnap was made public, there was a directive by the Presidency for SSS to coordinate the operations with a stern mandate to ensure that the abductors were apprehended promptly.
The directive apparently became imperative in view of the fact that it was a high-profile abduction and the first in the northern part of the country.
He disclosed that once contact was established with the kidnappers, negotiations commenced in earnest with the operatives posing as members of the Rotary Club International.
According to him, after the first week of intense negotiations, the kidnappers lowered their ransom to N10 million and insisted that the money would be paid at a particular location in Port Harcourt.
Unfortunately, when the money was taken to Port Harcourt, the kidnappers changed their minds saying that Rotary Club violated the terms of payment by sending a policeman to deliver the money. They threatened to blow off the policeman.
The kidnappers reportedly said it was not safe for them to appear at the venue to pick up the money.
At that point, the SSS said they stopped further negotiations with the kidnappers and decided also to shun their calls.
After persistent calls by the kidnappers, the operatives decided to change tactics by introducing a woman to the abductors who posed as a widow and concerned member of Rotary Club out to ensure decisive settlement of the matter.
She was able to conclusively bring down the asking price by the kidnappers to N5 million and the Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) junction, off Kachia road, Kaduna South, was agreed as the point to deliver the money.
The kidnappers were said to have insisted on a particular dress code of white T-Shirt upon black jeans trousers and black shoes for the woman when she would deliver the money for easy and proper identification. It was also agreed by the parties that the money would be delivered at the venue by 5 pm.
Aside from infiltrating the venue with their plain-clothe operatives, SSS, according to its account, drove down an ambulance bus load of their fully armed personnel to the venue shortly before the agreed time.
While the supposed nurse and doctor that accompanied the ambulance pretended that the car developed engine problems at that point and battled to see how they could fix it, the other security operatives at the back of the ambulance waited in readiness for action.
When the cover operative came with the money, she was directed by the kidnappers at what point to stop and she obeyed. She was again directed to move and after a very short while asked to stop and she complied.
At that point one young man approached the woman from nowhere and immediately commanded her to bring the money without wasting time.
Before she could finish explaining that the money was in the booth of her Honda (Hala) car she was ordered to come down and open the booth.
Immediately she alighted from the car and was then sure that was the principal suspect, she put her right hand across her head in the manner used in the years past for measuring a pupil’s qualification for entering primary school, a sign already agreed by the operatives to identify the suspect.
Swiftly, the operatives charged at the suspect, shooting in the air and it did not take long before they caught up with him, a young man of 25 years, later identified as Christian Tochukwu Ogwuzor.
Overwhelmed by the superior power of the operatives, Ogwuzor’s accomplice who drove him to the venue and remained in the car while the operation went on managed to escape with the blue Honda Civic car, which he later abandoned at Jere, about 106 kilometres to Abuja.
According to the SSS account, Ogwuzor’s accomplice immediately put a call across to his other accomplices still holding on to Mulligan, intimating them that the operation was a failure and warned them to run for safety.
That was how they all escaped, leaving the Canadian with no choice but to seek her own safety.
It was while she was wandering about without a clue as to where she was that some bewildered villagers spotted her and promptly took her to the police.
Before then, the operatives of SSS had been embarking on a house-to-house search of the village for the Canadian in the last 10 days.
This is because with the aid of the mobile companies, they were able to narrow down their search to the area through the calls made with the abductors.
Meanwhile, while the search for the other suspects continued, SSS yesterday arraigned Ogwuzor and his landlord, one Obinna, before a Magistrate’s Court in Kaduna where a proper remand order was granted by the court.
Mulligan, who was spotted at the zonal headquarters of SSS in Kaduna yesterday, declined to speak to newsmen on her experience, even as officials of the Canadian High Commission who accompanied her gave a phone number where every inquiry about her could be obtained.
The Kaduna State Government commended the efforts of the SSS, which led to the rescue of the Canadian and warned that it would not tolerate a similar act of criminality by anybody either resident in the state or visiting.
The state Commissioner of Information Saidu Adamu disclosed that henceforth such actions would be visited with the greatest force of the law in the state.
May12009