The Nigerian Police, Bayelsa State Command, says everything is in place to formally charge the social media star and celebrity kidnapper John Ewa (Lyon).
According to a statement from the state's PPRO, Asinim Butswat, infamous kidnapper John Lyon and his accomplices will be charged in Yenagoa's High Court 6 at 9 a.m. today.
The statement states that "the celebrity kidnapper John Ewa 'aka' John Lyon and others will be arraigned at High Court 6, Yenagoa, today, 30 November 2022, by 0900 hours."
In an unexpected turn of events a few months ago, John Lyon, a popular figure on Nigerian social media who was renowned for boasting about his fortune there, admitted to taking part in two kidnappings.
The 30-year-old Ewa, a native of the Akwagom-Eruan Community in the Boki LGA of Cross River State, was detained with the gang’s boss, Emmanuel Angase.
John, while being paraded by police a few months ago, confessed to the crimes, saying that his pals (the kidnap gang) had asked him for the address of his old boss, Danjuma Omeje, and that a few days later, they had kidnapped him and demanded N45 million from him.
After the operation, he received N1.5 million to help pay for his ailing mother’s hospital bills.
“I also gave them the address of one Akeem Olushola, whom they kidnapped and collected N80 million as a ransom for,” he claimed. “After that operation, they gave me N3.5 “million.”
While his second-in-command, one Gbalipre Gamage, remains at large, police have uncovered evidence that the gang ran a kidnapping camp at Sunny-kiri near Oluasiri in Nembe Local Government Area.