Cab driver fingers victims for us-Kidnappers

Four suspected kidnappers, who were arrested while they were in a hotel room, plotting how to abduct a business tycoon, have said they targeted the man because he drives different cars.

The suspects, Edet Ekuno, 32, Sunday Samiga, 24, Hope Edet Okon, 27, and Unagbon Isaiah, 31, confessed that they were shocked when detectives from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command, stormed into their hotel room, disrupting the ongoing meeting and slamming handcuffs on them.

The suspects are supposed to be five, but a cab driver, who used to bring details about prospective victims, is presently on the run.

Police recovered two locally made pistols and 18 live cartridges from the suspects.

Okon, an undergraduate, studying Computer Engineering at Uyo State Polytechnic said: “We planned to attack the businessman on his way to work in the morning. We targeted him because our informant said he drives different cars. We assumed he is rich. It’s only rich men that drive different cars. It was the cab driver who gave him information about the businessman.”

The State’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kayode Aderanti, who presented the suspects to journalists, said that on March 7, 2015, around 2:00am, he got information that some kidnappers were lodging at D2 Hotel, Ojodu-Berger, Lagos, perfecting plans to kidnap a businessman in Magodo Estate.

Aderanti said: “Immediately I got that information, I instructed the Officer in Charge of SARS (OC), SP. Abba Kyari to trail and stop the suspects before they struck. The suspects were arrested in their hotel room.”

Okon further confessed that in 2012, the gang attacked a man at 15 Golden Estate, Ajah. It was however a foiled attack because the screams of the man panicked the gang, forcing them to run.

Okon added: “We also had a deal in Akwa Ibom. The deal fetched us N5 million. I got N800, 000 as my share in that deal. The deal was that we kidnapped a doctor. The family paid N5m ransom. I used my share to start a poultry farm. The poultry however collapsed.”

The suspect said he regretted coming to Lagos, to join crime. He said that he was doing well as an estate agent in Akwa Ibom, adding: “If I had remained in Akwa Ibom, I would have still been receiving nice commission for sales of land. I even introduced Ekuno to the kidnap that led to our arrest.”

Ekuno, a former teller with Skye bank, said that he was sacked during Charles Soludo’s era, as Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He said that it was a period of consolidation and retrenchment. Ekuno said that he was one of those sacked.

He said: “I met Okon in Lagos. He introduced me into what he does. I am also an estate agent and music minister in a church. I’m very devoted. I don't just know what came over me. The first operation I took part was in 2012. The operation involved my neighbour, but it was not successful. The man shouted for help when we attacked him. We fled with his money and phones. We were five that went on that operation. I was given N20, 000 from the proceeds. The Magodo operation would have been my second operation."
Isaiah said: “Chukwudi introduced me and Sunday into this kidnapping business. I don’t know the other two. It was when we got to the Hotel, that we met the other two guys.”