Prison warders arrested for escorting inmate to hotels to meet gang members

Prison warders arrested for escorting inmate to hotels to meet gang members


Two warders of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Delta State Command, are currently wallowing in regret.

The warders, DCIP Anthony Nketan, 55, and SPA Justice Oveto, 34, are currently facing prospects of serving time in prison if found guilty of the role they played in providing easy access for an inmate in the prison who reportedly went out on three occasions to hold meetings in a hotel room with members of his kidnap gang who thereafter went about wreaking havoc across Delta State.

Two warders of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Delta State Command, are currently wallowing in regret.

The warders, DCIP Anthony Nketan, 55, and SPA Justice Oveto, 34, are currently facing prospects of serving time in prison if found guilty of the role they played in providing easy access for an inmate in the prison who reportedly went out on three occasions to hold meetings in a hotel room with members of his kidnap gang who thereafter went about wreaking havoc across Delta State.

He told Saturday Sun:

Since June 25, 2018, myself and one of the inmates, Stanley Erujere had been going out of the prison yard in Warri together to Omaks Hotel, Warri. It was my boss. DCIP. Anthony A. Nketan who gave me pass permit and ordered me to follow the inmate to the hotel.

“We had gone out of the prison yard three times. It was on the third occasion that detectives arrested us at the hotel.

I thought the inmate, Stanley Erujere, was there to see his relatives. I did not know that he and his gang members were meeting and planning kidnap operations in the hotel. We usually spent two hours in the hotel before going back to the prison yard.

Oveto claimed:

My boss has been denying me since we were arrested. He knows everything, especially, how Stanley has been going out of the prison yard to relax himself in the hotel.

DCIP Anthony Nketan, on the other hand, tried to wash himself clean of the accusations. The 55-year-old who hails from Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State told Saturday Sun he had no idea about what was going on.

According to Nketan who joined the Nigeria Prison Service in 1986, it was “my duty and authority to give a pass to allow any inmate to go out of the prison yard.”

He said: “It was in the month of June I allowed one of my warders/ clerks, SPA. Justice Oveto and the inmate Stanley Erujere to go out of the prison yard since I gave the pass permit. I did not know the mission of the inmate. I thought he wanted see his relatives. I did not know that they went to a hotel to see their gang members until when I was arrested and heard the truth of the matter.”

Delta State Commissioner of Police Muhammed Mustafa confirmed to Saturday Sun that detectives succeeded in arresting five men suspected of being members of a kidnap gang that had terrorized Asaba, Ughelli and Warri. Two kingpins of the gang are still at large, he affirmed.

The police boss also reeled out some of the past crimes allegedly perpetrated by the suspects.

On April 22, 2018, the gang allegedly attacked and kidnapped one Ejiroghene Omu at Jakpa road, Warri. From him they collected a ransom of two and a half million naira. They also robbed him of his Toyota Highlander jeep.