*Thick foliage shielded kidnappers,
victims from helicopter search
Right behind the Nigerian International Turkish
College, located at Isheri, Ogun State, is a community.
The community is called Ijaw Fishermen Settlement.
Like the name implies, almost everyone there is into fishing.
The only thing that separates the school from the
community are thick foliage. Residents of the community can’t see the school
from their homes. It’s quite a long distance.
In this community lives 34-year-old Totki Okoda.
Unlike other members of the community, Okoda was not too happy with the life of
fishing.
He was meant to be rich, not scrapping to catch
fishes, he thought to himself. He was disgruntled and unsatisfied. He wanted
more out of life.
Like everyone else, Okoda knew a school was located
in around the Isherin area, but he had never given the school a thought or more
than a passing glance.
But one day, he suddenly noticed that a lot of
expensive looking cars, especially jeep, were dropping students. The students
appeared to be returning to school after the holiday. The cars represented
untold wealth.
He started keeping an eye on the school and further
noticed that rich looking parents used to come to pick the kids.
Okoda knew all about kidnapping for ransom. He has a
friend, who was formerly living in the Ijaw Fishermen Settlement, called
America. Although America has relocated out of the community after suddenly
being catapulted into wealth, but they still kept in touch. America had often
regaled him with exploits of kidnapping for ransom. Okoda scrolled through his
phone contact, called America and told him about the Turkish school, where rich
kids could be grabbed for ransom.
America came over, together with Okoda and others;
they went to carry out a surveillance of the school. When America was satisfied
they could infiltrate the school, he took count of his men and realised he
needed more men.
A police source said: “He knew other gang leaders
that had lots of men. He called two gang leaders; Kakadu and Ossy. They gave
him men for the operation, but didn’t go with him. The abduction of the eight
females from the school was led by America. We’re still hunting for him.”
Kakadu had earlier told police that the abduction
was, a ‘Joint Operation,’ among three different gangs of kidnappers. He told
police that he contributed five men and planned the abduction, but didn’t go
with them.
Kakadu was arrested after four years on Police
Wanted List for bank robbery, pipeline vandalism and kidnapping.
He was behind the popular Agbara, Festac, Lekki and
Ikorodu bank robberies. Kakadu and his men were known for blowing up banks’
doors and vaults with dynamites.
It was gathered that 24 hours after the abduction of
the victims from the school, the IGP, Ibrahim Idris, instructed operatives of
IRT to go into the case. At least five teams were spread out to Ondo, Ogun,
Delta and Lagos states, under the leadership of the Assistant Commissioner of
Police (ACP), Mr. Abba Kyari, to hunt for the kidnappers and rescue the
victims.
A police disclose: “Akoda lives in the Ijaw Fishermen
Settlement. According to him, he started thinking of the abduction when he
noticed that several jeeps used to park in front of the school. He realised the
students were from rich homes. He now called his fellow Ijaw men, whom he knew
were into kidnapping. He told them how they could enter the school, through the
back of the school fence, kidnap and escape through water. They came for
surveillance. After the surveillance, they left, prepared and came back to
strike.”
On the day of the operation, the kidnappers came in
two boats. One was filled with armed men, who waited behind in the water; the
other was for the captives and some of the captors.
“Police used advanced technology to track and arrest
Akoda. It was only America’s phone number that he had. They are from the same
village in Ondo State. Akoda was expecting a percentage of the ransom,” said a
police source.
It was gathered that the kidnappers picked eight
victims became the boats couldn’t take more. This was Akoda’s first forage into
kidnapping.
After the rescue of the victims, some of them told
police that they were held in a thick forest and they saw helicopters flying
all over the place.
“They said the kidnappers told them that the
helicopters were looking for them, but that they would never be able to find
them. The kidnappers’ shanties were hidden by the thick foliage, which is why
helicopters couldn’t see them,” said the source.
The victims told police that four shanties were in
the creek, but covered by thick foliage.
The police source added: “Yes, the women were
blindfolded, but after three days the kidnappers removed the blindfolds. They have
boats that bring supplies of food. As the boats are bringing food supplies,
they also were bringing women. They are lovers to the kidnappers. These ladies
know these men are kidnappers. We heard they built four shanties in the creek. The
victims were kept in two of the shanties, while the kidnappers and their women
make use of the other two. When a group of women leaves after two or three days,
another set of ladies would come to replace them.”
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