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My Family Ran Away From Benue State Due To Gana’s Activities – Brother

Terkula Akwaza, the elder brother of the late notorious kidnapper, Terwase Akwaza, popularly known as Gana, has disclosed that his family had to run away from Benue because of Gana’s criminal activities.

Terkula said he was happy that the family could now live without fear of being monitored by security agents, who wanted to arrest the kidnap kingpin eventually killed in September by soldiers.

The elder brother was arrested recently alongside three of Gana’s gang members, Saatee Undi, Terhile Tsabee and Terkula Henry, by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police led by DCP Abba Kyari.

In an interview with Saturday PUNCH during the week, Terkula revealed that he assisted Gana to buy properties with the N200m he (Gana) sent to his account between 2017 and 2020.

He stated that Gana began his criminal activities in 1993 and graduated into a notorious criminal reportedly working for politicians.

Terkula, 47, disclosed that though he knew the N200m was proceeds of crime, he helped his brother to buy the properties because he was scared of him, adding that the late brother had a school.

He said, “Gana started crime in 1993, when he started smoking Indian hemp and we didn’t know what to do about it. In that same year, a truck was stolen in the market. It was later discovered that Gana stole it and he was beaten. He ran away from the village and came back after five years.

“He came back with many boys loyal to him. They started with farming and moved to armed robbery. His strength grew and he became so notorious and dreaded. Some politicians started using him to kill their opponents.

“My family ran away from Benue State due to his activities, but I came back in 2016 after he was granted amnesty by the state government in 2015 and was given the slot to collect taxes from farm produce. He set up a company and made me the managing director. He was the one managing the company’s account and we were paying salaries to people working for the company and remitting the government own percentage to its account.

“Later that year, Gana was accused of killing a Special Adviser to the Governor and he was declared wanted. Rather than surrender, he ran into the bush and started sending money to my account. I was using the money to buy landed properties. He sent me over N200m between 2017 and when he was killed. I bought a drilling machine worth over N35m and we bought an excavator at the rate of N19.5m and a dredger at the rate of N14m.

“We also bought a low-bed truck for N15m and a Nissan pick-up for N2.7m. Then we bought two landed properties at Asosi Junction close to Abuja for N5.7m and bought another land close to Abuja for N4.5m. I learnt that my brother bought a school at Makurdi in Makurdi.”

Terkula said Gana also bought two houses on Naka Road in Makurdi, a house on Gboko Road and another in the Gboko Yande area of Benue State.

He added, “He was buying properties in his children’s name and I supported him because I didn’t want people to think I was jealous of my brother. I am happy now that my brother has been killed. We now have peace in our family and will stop running up and down because of security agents. Government can take over all his properties.”

One of the three gang members, Tsabee, 27, said he took part in the kidnapping and killing of a medical doctor, adding that he was given N300,000 from the N7.5m ransom paid by the doctor’s family.

Undi, 24, stated that he got N250,000 from the ransom but said he was not with the gang when the doctor was killed.

Henry, who said his cousin, one Teerna, lured him into Gana’s gang, explained that his sister was also kidnapped He added, “We were asked to pay N500,000. I took the money to them and my sister was released. They held me back and asked my sister to go and raise N300,000. I was shocked when I realised that it was Teerna that gave them information about my sister.”