Billionaire Kidnapper: Why We Think Evans Charmed Our Sister – Wife's family

Sunday Vanguard recently visited the wife of the notorious kidnapper's family in Oraifite, Ekwusigo L.G.A, Anambra State.

Recall that the kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike was captured recently at his Magodo mansion in Lagos.

According to Chukwuemeka, Evans' in-law(wife's elder brother), their parents had 13 kids, including Evans' wife Uchenna and everyone of them ended up engaging in menial jobs to make ends meet

Chukwuemeka's family of six, along with the unmarried elder sister of Evans’ wife, were found living in the house built in the village by one of his brothers residing in South Africa.

To express how detached the wife of the suspected kidnapper is from the family, Chukwuemeka, a peasant farmer and construction site labourer, said his sister had not visited home since she got married in 2006.

The family house of Evans' wife Uchenna.
Inset: Uchenna and her elder brother, Chukwuemeka

According to him, he returned from the North some years ago where he was an apprentice following the disturbances in many cities in that part of the country.

While at home, and because of lack of support, he learnt to be a mechanic, but had to abandon the job when he had a fracture while lifting a car engine.

The encounter with Chukwuemeka began earlier after he returned with a rickety motorcycle, as enquiries were being made about the family, with a bunch of cassava sticks tied behind it. He welcomed the visitor and told the story of his family.

He said: “Our late father was already bedridden when Evans married Uchenna, our sister. My sister knew how difficult it was for the family and how sick our father was, but, after her marriage, no member of the family set eyes or heard from her up till now. For the eight years that our father was sick before he died in 2014 , Uchenna neither visited nor sent anybody to know how the family was coping. Sometimes I say to myself that it is possible that Evans charmed my sister because this was a girl that was very caring and homely. For her to abandon the family did not look normal to me.

“During the burial of our father, it was her father in-law, Mr. Stephen Onwuamadike, that came with his relations and could not even fulfill the conditions required during such situation in Igbo land. Uchenna and her husband, Evans, did not come to the village for the burial.

“For some years now, our mother has been down with diabetes and one of my brothers living in the North had to take her to keep close watch on her. She would have preferred staying at home, but having seen that it would be extremely difficult for me to manage the sickness due to lack of financial resources, she agreed to go to the North.

“My sister Uchenna and her husband have not been communicating with us and we don’t even know where they live. There was a time someone said they were living abroad. I am, therefore, shocked to hear that Uchenna’s husband is a  suspected kidnapper and that he had made so much money.

“My sister that I knew would have escaped from his house if she found out that the man she married is a kidnapper and that is why I say that everything is not normal with her. I had not even left this village for apprentice in the North when she got married and I am now married with four children and my sister does not know whether I am alive or not. It is even possible that I might not recognize her if I see her, not to talk of knowing her children. My wife here (pointing at her where she was seated and listening) does not know about her because we have never discussed anything about Uchenna. I am also surprised to hear that she has five children.

“My elder brother once told me that he communicated with her and there is no way I could know their present predicament because I do not watch television, neither do I have a mobile phone that can be used for browsing.  I cannot even identify my brother in-law, Evans, if we meet anywhere because the last time I set eyes on him was the day she came here and took my sister away 11 years ago.”

Chukwuemeka, however, pleaded with government to give his sister and her husband a second chance, believing that they would turn a new leaf, having seen where crime landed them.

Culled from Vanguard