The last has not been heard about the arrested billionaire kidnapper, Evans (Chukwudi Onuamadike). Police sources said that useful statements made by a younger sister of the notorious kidnap kingpin led to his arrest.

The sister was said to have been arrested after her number was identified as one of the contacts in Evans’ special SIM card. We gathered that Evans’ childhood friend and four girlfriends were also picked up by the police and they all gave relevant information and Evans used three phones – two of which reportedly cost N2.4m and N2.6m respectively – with anti-tracking features to frustrate his arrest.

We learnt that he contacted families of his victims through the phones to demand ransoms, bearing in mind that the families could report to the police for tracking and Evans had 126 registered SIM cards.

He was said to have bought three houses in Accra, Ghana and wristwatches worth thousands of dollars from the proceeds of the crimes. The suspect, who dropped out of school at Junior Secondary School 2, had confessed to have once collected $1m ransom.

Our sources revealed that three phones – a Turaya, and two different Virtu phones – containing anti-tracking features were recovered from the 36-year-old native of the Nnewi North Local Government Area, Anambra State. “He has 11 phones. Two of them are special Virtu phones, which are very difficult to track. He also has a Turaya, which is a satellite phone. It can be used anywhere, including in the bush, on the sea, and desert, where there are no GSM service. In Nigeria, we don’t have the capability to track Turaya.”

“He said he bought the Virtu phones N4.6m. He used the three phones for his nefarious activities. We succeeded in tracking him through the other phones he has.”

Our sources added that a number of SIM cards used by Evans complicated the challenges posed by the sophisticated phones, adding that he bought the SIM cards registered from miscreants in Computer Village, Ikeja. “We studied and analysed 126 SIM cards before we caught him. We have about two-page analysis of each of the numbers. He used 125 of those numbers to call his gang members only and used one to call his mother, wife and sister. He said he bought all the SIM cards already registered in Computer Village for N1,500 each.”

“We picked his sister, his childhood friend with whom he attended primary school, and four of his girlfriends. They gave us the information that led to his arrest. Evans confirmed that they didn’t know he was into kidnapping. Because of that, we granted them bail, while investigations continue.”