An Effurun High Court in Delta State has sentenced two persons, with hard labour, to a total of 33 years jail term.
They were found guilty of kidnapping a prominent Deltan Hotelier and demanding N10 million ransom.
The two accused persons were Wisdom Destiny, 35, from Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area of Rivers State, and a motor mechanic, Godstime Onovwakpor, 39, from Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State.
They were convicted of charges ranging from conspiracy to commit armed robbery, the substantial offence of armed robbery, kidnapping and demanding of property with menace.
The court sentenced them to 10 years imprisonment each for count one, another 10 years each for armed robbery and yet another 10 years for kidnapping, even as they got three years each for demanding a ransom of N10 million.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
Prosecutors from the Delta State Ministry of Justice told the court that the accused persons and one other now at large on December 27, 2009 at Ovwian within the Otu-Udo Judicial Division kidnapped a popular hotel proprietor, Francis German of Peabody Hotels, from a church where he had gone to worship while armed with a gun.
The hotelier, who was told to re-park his car by an usher in the church, was about doing so when suddenly three men pointed a gun at him and whisked him away to an unknown location in his Mercedes Benz Car.
He was said to have been released after three days in captivity after his wife allegedly parted with a N10 million ransom.
The first accused, Wisdom Destiny, who was picked up by the Police investigating the matter while attempting to sell the victim’s car at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, admitted to the crime, which led to the arrest of the second accused person.
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