A presidential pardon was granted to kidnappers kingpin Kelvin Prosper Oniarah.
His operations spanned six states—Delta, Edo, Rivers, Abia, Benue, and Oyo—with detention camps in Warri and Kokori (Delta), Ugbokolo (Benue), Benin City (Edo), and Aba (Abia).
Among his most notorious high-profile crimes:
Masterminding the August 24, 2013, kidnapping of renowned human rights lawyer Barrister Mike Ozekhome (SAN) along the Auchi-Benin road, for which he was convicted of terrorism and kidnapping in October 2023 alongside accomplice Frank Azuekor, based on eyewitness testimony.
– Abducting a sitting judge of the Edo State Judiciary.
– Snatching a top female official from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
– Kidnapping and later killing Dr. Chudi Nwike, former Deputy Governor of Anambra State, while he was held captive.
– Capturing several National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, alongside multiple police and military officers, whom his gang ambushed in deadly raids, including a brazen 2012 attack on prison warders in Warri that freed his men and left guards dead.
Oniarah’s syndicate also unleashed waves of armed robberies and ambushes on security forces across Delta, Edo, Rivers, and Anambra, killing dozens of officers and civilians in the process. He never settled for modest ransoms, dragging out brutal negotiations that pushed desperate families to their limits, and even botched an attempt to grab his own traditional ruler, the Ovie of Agbon clan, along with a local government adviser.
In a chilling escalation, on September 17, 2013—just eight days before his downfall—Oniarah strutted into Kokori in military fatigues with eight armed henchmen, publicly launching LIMUP and issuing a 60-day ultimatum to the federal government: release his arrested gang members, or face unrelenting havoc on innocent Nigerians.
Posing as a Robin Hood for the neglected Urhobo, he escaped that brazen display only to be nabbed at 3 a.m. on September 25 in a Port Harcourt hotel by a joint Nigerian Army-DSS team, a timing locals whispered invoked supernatural dread.
This is the man granted pardon by President Tinubu in the recent criminal amnesty.
