Here are current details of the dreaded Imo kidnapping gang and how to avoid falling into their dangerous trap.
The gang specialises in robbing, kidnapping for ransom, and killing their victims to harvest their body parts.
This information will be updated from time to time.
Profile of Imo Gang
| Gang Location | Umudim Junction, Owerri |
| Current phone numbers used to lure their victims | +2347036350656, +2348111517403 |
| Modus Operandi | 1. Use of social media to promote sale of antiques, including old coins. 2. Use of WhatsApp to promote jobs or scholarships with generic email contact addresses (yahoo and gmail in particular). 3. Direct phone calls from unknown persons claiming to know you and proposing fantastic business deals. 4. Use of social media to promote native solutions to problems such as chronic sicknesses (all types of diseases), barreness and infertility in couples, and helping desperate spinsters to get husbands, etc. |
| Consequences | Victims are 1. Robbed instantly 2. Kidnapped for ransom, and 3. Killed to harvest their body organs for sale. |
| 10 Steps to protect yourself | When attending a meeting with unknown phone contacts: 1. NEVER agree to meet at a home or a lonely location. Meet at a neutral place such as bank, police station. 2. Search the location on Google and Facebook. You never know what might turn up to assist you. 3. Go with security escort although not to a secluded or lonely location. Your life and that of your security is not guaranteed if you meet in a secret place. 4. Think about the deal you are about to strike; if it looks too good to be true, it is most probably a scam. 5. Give a friend or family member details of whom you’re going to meet, including names, numbers, and location and have them call you every 15 minutes. 6. Use prearranged codes to answer the phone from your friend or relation. 7. Report to the nearest police station before you enter the meeting. 8. Arrive without announcing your presence and survey your location before deciding that it’s safe to go in. 9. Be alert and prepared to quickly withdraw if you’re uncomfortable about anything. Obey your sixth sense. 10. The safest way is don’t do deals with people you don’t know unless it is a virtual or remote deal that won’t lead to a physical meeting. |
| Imo Police Emergency Numbers | Police Control Room 08034773600, 08098880197 Police Area Commander, Okigwe 07037527225 Area Commander, Orlu 08033280491 Area Commander, Owerri 08034501453 Police Public Relations Officer 08081574002 |
Next Steps
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‘My Lucky Escape,
Please let this serve as a lesson to everyone of us here.
As we go about our different business transactions, it has become very very important for us to start thinking security first before thinking money.
My name is Mr Lawson Israel.
I went to Owerri in Imo State on Tuesday 2nd May, 2023 to inspect and buy a 1kobo coin from an allerged seller.
After the allerged seller had produced a current video of the coin and sent it to me for confirmation, I was convinced the coin actually exist, then I decided to go for physical inspection and purchase.
Arriving at Owerri on Wednesday, I called the guy to come out with the coin to a bank in the state capital, let test it and transact, but he said where I was, was too far for him, that he can’t bring the coin that far for security concerns except I come to where the coin was.
Well, I had already travelled that far from Lagos to Owerri, so I couldn’t afford going back without the coin because a buyer was already waiting for me to sell the coin to him next day. So I decided to go over there and inspect it.
On getting to the area, I realized it was completely an outskirt area of the city, bushes and forests everywhere. So I decided to be more careful and carry out a quick security check on the alleged sellers and the area in general, before calling to inform them I was around.
Police Angle
I asked someone there for any nearby police station, got the address and went there straight. I reported myself to the police and briefed them on the precise transaction that brought me to the area.
Right there, the police woman opened up to me that, that area is the headquarters of kidnappers in Imo State and that, the strategy they used to bring me all the way from Lagos to that bush is a new trend of tactics those kidnappers in that area has been using recently to lure innocent people to the area, rob them, kidnap them and demand for ransome and in most cases, kill them and sell their body parts, and that the police has been battling with them to disperse the information to the public.
Sometimes they deceive sick people that there’s a place there that can cure your sickness natively. Or can make you conceive very quickly or help you get a husband quickly, etc.
Once you enter there and they take hold on you, only God can determine your fate from there.
When I heard that, I quickly put a call to a friend that lives in Imo State to get further information on the area, he said to me, his village is just around that area too and that less than 2 weeks ago, those kidnappers there, killed 5 policemen just to kidnap someone at that very address they asked me to come to and they successfully kidnapped the victim unchallenged.
As a confirmation, the police officer asked me to call them and tell them I’m at the police station in the area, let them come there for the transaction if they’re real and when I did, they said they can never come there, except I come to the address they gave to me earlier.
When I asked them why, they said because they don’t feel safe doing the transaction there.
The police then said to me, “you see?”
Then they guided me to take an alternative route that leads to Abia State from Okpala and then return to Lagos from there this morning. According to the police, having failed in the operation, they may mount surveillance for me at any exit route that leads back to Owerri from that village or any motor park in Owerri that loads passengers to Lagos.
That’s how God rescued me from those killers and I escaped.
When I was out of Imo state, I called the guy and asked him, “so you wanted to kidnap me? You’ve failed woefully.”
He Exclaimed, Chai! and ended the call.
Lessons Learnt
Please while going for job inspection, scrap purchase inspection and any other inspection, especially with people you barely know, it’s better to meet in a high security area or go there with enough security personnels to guarantee your safety.
Life is only one.
I was lucky to escape, you may not be that lucky. Please be careful out there. Stay alive for your family.
Author
