Simon Ebegbulem
3 November 2008
Palpable fear gripped residents of Ogida area in Benin, weekend, after over 20 families received threat letters from a gang which described itself as "Hired Killers", warning them to drop N50,000 at a certain location in the area or their family members would be kidnapped or killed.
However, disturbed by the situation which made some families flee the area, the Edo State Police Command said it had deployed a crack team of detectives to the area to investigate the matter and arrest those behind the threat letters.
Vanguard learnt that the police command in the state became worried when families from that area, all of them well to do families, reported the matter last week. Vanguard observed that the letters were all written by one person with the same hand writing.
The letter which was made available to Vanguard, and dated 28 October, 2008 read: "This secret letter is from the hired killer gang members informing you that one woman has paid this gang money for us to come and assassinate your wife. But the gang leader pleaded on your behalf and we decided that this secret letter should be written to you so that you will send N50,000 to us as our fuel money or else she will pay with her blood.
"Now this is how you are going to pay the money, buy a small pot which is used for sacrifice, put the money inside the pot and cover it with a black cloth so that it will look like sacrifice then take the pot to Ogida street junction at Uwelu road. We have sent our men round to monitor this family and any one found revealing this information will be killed," the letter stated.
However, the Police Spokes man in the state, ASP Peter Ogboi urged residents of the area not to be scared as the police are working round the clock to unearth those behind the threat letter.
According to him, "Yes we are aware of that development and we are not relaxing. We discovered that the letter was sent to some rich families in that area may be because they know that they will be afraid then they will bring the money. But we are telling them not to pay any money to any- body because they are just blackmailers and must not be encouraged.
"Our detectives have been to the area they requested that the money should be kept on several occasion but they refused to show up. We were there for several days monitoring but they never showed up. So they are just petty criminals.
But people should watch very closely the people that live around them because we understand that these letters were dropped inside the compounds of these families.
They have done that with the help of those living around you that is why you must know all those who live around you. But we are on top of the situation and I can assure you we will get those people behind these letters soon" he stated.
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