THE Delta State Police Command has exhumed the decomposing body of Mrs. Philomina Ogadi, a 54-year-old woman who was buried in a shallow grave in farmland near the Benin-Agbor-Onitsha expressway, Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area, Delta state by her abductors.
The body of the woman who hails from the Otolokpo community in the Ika North East Local Government Area of the state was exhumed after four days of her burial by her kidnappers after collecting a ransom of N650,000 from her family.
Ugadi was abducted last week by a nine-man gang of kidnappers including her neighbors.
One of the kidnappers who is now in Police custody led the State Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, Faleye Olayele, and other Police officers to the scene where the body of the victim was exhumed by officers of the State Police Command and taken to the mortuary.
Briefing journalists at the State Police headquarters in Asaba, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr Ari Mohammed Ali, said the woman was declared missing by her son.
He disclosed that her body was exhumed with gunshot injuries on her head, blindfolded despite ransom paid to her abductors.
Ari said: “Having killed the woman and buried her in a shallow grave, they did not stop there, they went on calling the children and collecting ransom. So far, they have collected N650,000 from her children after killing the woman.
“They made the children believe that their mother was still alive. They did a video recording of their mother and played before the children, making them believe that their mother was still alive”
One of the suspects that have confessed to the crime said this was his first attempt at kidnapping and robbery.
The eldest son of the victim said one of the suspects live in the same compound with his mother before she was kidnapped and murdered.