I went into kidnapping after amnesty programme was stopped, says Marine Pilot

• Gang planned to kidnap Onibeju of Ibeju-Lekki Kingdom, after abducting landlords

Twenty-nine-year-old Natei Okunna, also known as Osama, is the gang leader of the kidnappers that abducted three landlords and their aerobics instructor at the Isheri area of Lagos State, some weeks ago.
The suspects collected N12million ransom from the family of the landlords before they released them.
According to Okunna, he was in an expensive hotel playing with his mistress, when one of his men brought his share of the loot to his room. The gang was fine-tuning plans to abduct a top traditional ruler in Lagos State, Oba Rafiu Salami, who is the Onibeju of Ibeju-Lekki Kingdom, Lagos State, when operatives of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris’s Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT, led by a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Mr. Abba Kyarri, swooped on them. Investigations revealed that Okunna is an ex-Niger Delta militant.
He was one of those that often bombed oil facilities and kidnapped expatriates, while demanding resource control for Niger Delta regions. To ensure the bombings, destructions and kidnappings ceased, the Federal Government offered the militants amnesty.
Okunna was one of those that benefited from the presidential amnesty programme. Okunna, like many militants, was sent overseas to further his education. A monthly stipend was also paid to the militants. He said: “I went back to crime after the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta Militants in 2009, because the Amnesty office stopped paying our monthly stipends. I’m a trained Marine Pilot in South Africa, courtesy of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. But after I returned to Nigeria, I couldn’t secure a job. I was surviving on the monthly stipends from PAP.
But in 2015, PAP stopped paying. I relocated from my home Town in Warri North Local Government to Lagos State, where I joined some of my friends and brothers, who were into pipeline vandalism at the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.”
Okunna and some of his gang members were arrested after IRT operatives combed different creeks, searching for the kidnapped landlords. The suspects were picked up in Ore Town, Ondo State, Sapele in Delta State, Ibafo in Ogun State, Epe and Ikorodu areas in Lagos State.
The suspects arrested with Okunna are James Kegbe, Thank-God Segede, Trust Bourdilon and Timi Inomi. The suspects confessed during interrogation to have received the sum of N12m as ransom before releasing the landlords. The landlords are Kennedy Ucheagwu, Dr. Omololu Bello, Fidelis Esang and the instructor, Olalere Olawale.
A police source said: “The kidnappers held the landlords hostage in the creeks of Ikorodu. It was through intelligence gathering that we were able to locate where the kidnappers held the victims. We also learnt that they were making plans to abduct the Onibeju of Ibeju-Lekki Kingdom.
They were already monitoring the movement of the Onibeju of Ibeju-Lekki Kingdom before we arrested them.” The police source further noted: “The IGP wanted to prevent a repeat of the incident of August 7, 2016, when Oba Goriola Oseni, the Oniba of Iba land, was kidnapped and a ransom of N15.1m paid before he was released. He deployed operatives of the IRT to Lagos State, with an order to track and arrest all the suspects involved in the kidnapping of the landlords.
The first suspect, James Kegbe, A.K.A JJ, was arrested in his house in Ore Town, while the gang leader, Natei Okunna, was trailed to his hideout in Sapele Delta State, while the three other suspects were arrested in Ogun and Lagos States respectively.”
Okunna recounted: “When I joined the gang, it was Vickar who accommodated and showed me how they operated. First, we vandalised pipelines and sold the stolen oil product. Later, we moved into kidnapping. Our camp was in the creeks of Shawo in Ikorodu. When soldiers started bombing that area, we moved away.
We set up a new camp at the creek of Ajegunle, Ikorodu.” According to him, he and his members carried out several kidnappings. He recalled that when the time to abduct the landlords at Isheri came, he didn’t go on the operation because he was the boss.
His words: “I was the one who deployed the guys that went on surveillance on the day before the gang attacked. I was at the camp when my men brought the landlords. I gave instructions that the landlords should be properly fed. I left the camp three days after they brought the landlords.
I went to lodge in a hotel with my girlfriend. When the ransom was paid, I was called to come for my share. I asked one of my boys to bring the money to my hotel room. When I counted it, it was N500, 000. They told me that everyone in the camp got a share of the money.” He confessed that before the money came, the gang was already making plans to abduct the Onibeju of Ibeju-Lekki.
Okunna recollected: “An informant brought the job to us. The person said security around the king was very slack. We sent him to watch the man’s movements and report back to us. Our informant gave us a positive result.
We were yet to choose a date for the operation when I was arrested.” Kegbe said he was arrested in his home at Ore, Ondo State. He described himself as a fisherman, adding that he joined kidnapping because fishing wasn’t fetching bumper income. He added: “We were seven in number that went for the job of kidnapping the landlords.
We went with one boat and five AK47 rifles. Our informant told us that the landlords would come out in the morning to jog around that area. Four of us stood by the road side with guns, waiting for them. When the landlords sighted us, they got scared and started running. We went after them. We shot into the air and four of them quickly lay on the ground.
We took the four, while others escaped. I was given N300, 000.” Segede, 27, said he worked as a cleaner in a hotel at Sheri North. He said that it was his step-father, known as MB, who brought the job to the kidnappers.
He however insisted that he wasn’t aware when his father contacted the kidnappers. Segede said: “My step-father didn’t tell me about his plans, but it was one of my friends, Trust, that told me the gang was planning to carry out a kidnap. Trust told me that my step father brought the job. My step father is married to my mother; they have four children together.
The man is a fisherman and a hunter. He normally hunts bush cow inside Isheri bush. He lives inside an uncompleted building within that same area, with my mother. After I was told about the job, I indicated my interest; I was told that my role would be to monitor the movements of our targets.
I was told to alert the gang the moment I see the landlords jogging. I was given N300, 000 and my stepfather got N500, 000.” Bourdilon, 28, said that part of his role in the gang was to buy foodstuffs and ensure the landlords were well fed.
He said that after the ransom was paid, he and Kegbe led the landlords out of the camp and left them at a suitable spot, where they could find their way home. Bourdilon introduced himself as a trader, selling with his wife at Ikorodu. Bourdilon added: “I have always been part of that gang. It was Osama (Okunna) that taught me how to shoot.
I got N300, 000 as my share from the ransom.” The Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Don Awuna, who confirmed the arrest, said that the IGP would not relent in his efforts in combating crime and criminality within the country.