Teenagers arrested for attempted kidnapping •Say ‘we wanted to use money to seek varsity admission’

Similoluwa is a Yoruba name which, if translated, means ‘put your trust/rest in God’. However, a 17-year-old boy bearing that name decided to help himself without waiting for God. Claiming to be in need of money, Similoluwa Babatunde sought the cooperation of his friend,  Tunde Alonge, to kidnap his (Similoluwa) cousin so that he could demand ransom from the boy’s mother who is his father’s younger sister.
The two friends had reportedly planned to go for the boy, Victor Oloketuyi, a student of a private secondary school in Ibadan, on his way home from school. Having agreed to carry out the kidnap plan, the two friends were reported to have armed themselves with masks, knife and cutlass. Not only that, they were said to have bought some wraps of Indian hemp allegedly to embolden them in their bid.
To solve the problem of mobility, the two friends reportedly approached commercial motorcycle operator on Tuesday, May 21, persuading him to join them, and promising to give him N100,000 for the role he would play. And that became their undoing.
Unknown to the teenagers, the police at Egbeda, headed by CSP Tunji Disu, who is the Divisional Police Officer, had held meetings with commercial vehicle drivers, okada riders, hoteliers and others on the need to boost the security of the area. This move towards community policing paid off as the okada rider quickly informed members of his association. They, in turn, informed the police, who decided to trail the suspects until they were arrested.
Speaking with Crime Reports on the proactive measure taken by his officers and men, the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Mohammed Indabawa said that the two young suspects had confessed to the crime. Indabawa also confirmed that a knife, a cutlass, wraps of Indian hemp and facial masks which they had wanted to use to hide their identities, were recovered from them.
He praised the efforts of the police and the community in proactively foiling what could have caused panic in a family and send security operatives into a frenzy of searching for a kidnap victim.
In an interview with Crime Reports, Similoluwa and Alonge confessed to the crime they were alleged of, saying that they intended using the ransom they would have collected in securing university admission.
It was also gathered that Similoluwa had been on the trail of his cousin for over a week as he had been making phone calls to the unsuspecting mother of his would-have-been victim, regularly asking about his whereabouts and welfare.
According to Similoluwa who disclosed that  his parents were from Ikole Ekiti in Ekiti State, “my action was prompted by the desire to gain admission into a tertiary institution which had not been possible because of fund.
“I wanted to seek admission into the University of Lagos but one counsellor (sic) said I should go and bring N250,000. I don’t know his name. I didn’t get the money so I missed the admission. I started working as a labourer with bricklayers at construction sites. Things were difficult for me, and I didn’t have money again. Then I remembered my father had once helped his younger sister who works in federal government health institution in Ibadan. I went to her but she told she could not help me then because she was not having money.
“I knew she was not saying the truth so the thought just came to me that I could kidnap her son to get money from her. We intended to kidnap him from his school at Sango area. I told my friend and we went to a commercial motorcyclist. We just wanted to collect N500,000 as ransom.”
When asked why he could not approach his parents for help, Similoluwa said they were poor. “My father lost his job about four years ago so things had been difficult for us,” he said.
He denied smoking Indian hemp, saying that he was using the wraps of marijuana found on him to nourish his hair.  
His friend, Alonge from Ilesa, Osun State confessed that “it was Similoluwa who came to tell me that his aunt had money but was stingy. He said the woman had a son called Victor and suggested that we should kidnap him so that we could get some money to seek admission into the university. I told him I could not do it but he assured me that there would be no problem.
“To carry out our plan, we went to commercial motorcyles’ park and negotiated with an okada rider on the okada to use for the kidnap. We told the okada rider that we were going to give him N100,000 if he would work with us. We meant to use the money to process our admission. Unfortunately, he went to inform members of his association, who in turn informed the police. That was how we were arrested.”
Crime Reports gathered that Similoluwa’s aunt had been so sad that her nephew could plan such evil towards her son. A police source told Crime Reports that the woman claimed to have been the one helping Similoluwa’s parents financially since his father lost his job. She was said to have helped the teenager to secure a menial job where she was working but that the boy worked for about two days and left. Though the parents of the two suspects were reported to have been pleading that the police should temper justice with mercy, the police commissioner declared that they would be charged to court after the completion of police investigation.
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