We have rivet and raped several women- Suspects Photos

Members of a threeman gang have told the police in Akwa Ibom State that they could not recall the number of women they had raped.

The suspects specialise in going round Uyo metropolis , using a commercial tricycle (napep)  to pick unsuspecting female passengers before bewitching and raping them.

Parading members of the gang at the weekend at the State Command Headquarters, Uyo , the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO ), ASP Cordelia Nwawe , said they were apprehended by a team of Special Anti- Robbery (SARS) and State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) following a tip – off by one of their victims.

The suspects, Utebe Archibong (29 ), Charles Essien (27 ) and James Etim (24 ), the PPRO said, succeeded because the victim (name withheld ) said one of her abductors pretended to be a commercial tricycle rider, while the remaining two pretended to be passengers.

According to Nwawe, the victim, a University of Uyo student , while aboard the tricycle, was hypnotised and then taken to a place where she was raped several times. Thereafter, the suspects made her to swear to an oath never to reveal the incident to anyone, else she would die.

But she summoned the courage and narrated her ordeal to her roommates in the hostel who advised her to report the incident to the police who swooped on the rapists.

The suspects, who confessed to the crime, said many young women had fallen prey to their pranks.

The suspects said they had been raping for a very long time. Paraded alongside the rape suspects was Christian Ekung (27 ), who was nabbed for planning to kidnap his aunt, Mrs. Mary Asuquo Inyang, a resident of Oron Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

Nwawe disclosed that the suspect, who lives in Lagos, came into the state after strategizing with some friends on how to abduct the aunt for ransom.

However, luck ran out on him as his felonious plan was divulged to the police by the same friends.

The suspect, the PPRO added, was going to abduct the aunt and demand a ransom of N3million.

But Ekung denied that he came in from Lagos to kidnap his aunty who , according to him, has been his Sponsor.

The suspect said he returned to the state because one of his friends had told him he had a job for him.