The Nigeria Police Force has effected the arrest of associates of Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans.
Spokesman of the Force, Moshood Jimoh, stated that those apprehended were found to be wealthier and living bigger than him.
Evans is spending his second month in police custody and is expected to be formally charged within the next one month.
“You may recall that a Federal High Court granted us a three-month remand warrant for Evans. We are just into the second month now and before the expiration of the third month, it is expected that we should be taking him to court.
“The little time is to ensure that we conduct a thorough and detailed investigation.
“You may recall that he illegally acquired a Ghanaian passport with a Ghanaian name but with his passport photograph.
“He was also fingered for involvement in other crimes in South Africa and other places. So we need a little time to properly round things up and ensure that he is properly prosecuted because Nigerians will not be happy if we lose such a case in court on the basis of technical matters,” Jimoh said.
Jimoh also revealed that relations of former victims of Evans’ were among those being detained by the police.
“In the course of this investigation we have other prime suspects including people who broke away from Evans’ gang to start their own gang – they left Evans to go and do a similar (kidnapping) business.
“Some of the suspects we later picked after detectives’ interactions with Evans are even living larger than Evans.
“The Inspector-General of Police is taking the battle to criminals but maximum security is achieved through the alertness of everybody in the interest of everybody and such attitude goes a long way to prevent many people from becoming victims of criminality,” Jimoh added.