‘We collected N200, 000 from DPO to free female Sergeant’

Three suspected kidnappers, who abducted a female sergeant and a lawyer at the Agbowa area of Lagos State in February, have revealed how they carried out the abductions and collected ransom.

The suspects were presented to journalists yesterday by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni.

According to Owoseni, the kidnappers collected N200, 000 as ransom from the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Ketu Division before they freed the female sergeant.

The suspects, Mimo Blessing 20, Aboy Feku 23 and Yola Samuel 30, were arrested by the Anti-Kidnapping Squad and mobile policemen on Sunday. The police claimed to have arrested them while attempting to escape after collecting ransom from the lawyer’s family.

The suspects however insisted that they were arrested during a police routine stop and search. The police arrested them after they couldn’t explain how they came to be in possession of large sum of money and several phones. It was a lucky break for the police.

The policewoman, Sergeant Bola, attached to Ketu Police Division in Ikosi Ejrin Local Council Development Area, was abducted in Omu-Ijebu while returning to her station in February. She was abducted along with four other passengers in a commercial bus.

After Sergeant Bola was abducted, the kidnappers called the DPO and demanded for N5million ransom. The money was later reduced to N200, 000. It was gathered that she was released immediately the N200, 000 was paid.

The suspects, who also admitted abducting a lawyer in his farm at Igbodu farm Settlement, Epe area of the state, confessed to have collected N5million from his family as ransom.

Recovered from the suspects are four automatic rifles, one locally made gun, N400, 000, three speed boats, several machetes and cell phones, allegedly collected from victims.

One of the suspects, Feku, said that he was actually recruited into the gang three months ago by the leader of the gang simply identified as Tallest. The recruitment was done in their village, in Ondo State.

He said: “I was recruited into the gang three months ago by Tallest. I knew him from our village in Ondo State. It was Tallest who invited me to Lagos. I came to Lagos in January and I was picked up by two members of the gang. They took me in a boat to their camp at Molajoye, in Epe. My first operation was the one involving a female police sergeant. On that fateful day, we came out from the creek in two speed boats. We laid ambush at Omu-Ijebu road; while we were waiting, we saw a car carrying five persons. We stopped them as they got to where we were waiting. We took all the occupants of the vehicles into our boats.

“Among the occupants were three women and two men. We headed to our camp. We kept them for five days. It was while we were at the camp that we discovered that a female policewoman was among the five persons we abducted. We separated her from the others. We later called the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ketu that we had abducted one of his policewomen.

“We demanded for N5 million as ransom from the DPO. We also contacted the family of the policewoman. We also demanded N5 million from them. The DPO said he wouldn’t be able to pay N5million. At the end, we collected N200, 000 from him. We also collected an additional N300, 000 from the woman's family.”

Feku disclosed that after they released the policewoman, the gang stormed a farm at Igbodu, where it kidnapped a lawyer who had gone to attend to his birds in his poultry.

According to Feku, the abduction of the lawyer was triggered by the protest to government house, Alausa by some of the farmers.

He said: “We took the lawyer to our camp. Initially, we demanded for N20m from his family members, but at the end, we settled for N5 million. His family paid the agreed sum. Tallest gave me N400, 000 as my own share. That was the same money that the police found on me the day they arrested me.”

Feku said that other members of the gang fled their camp as soon as news of his arrest and other two got to them.

Another suspect, Samuel, who claimed to be innocent, said he was contracted by Aboy and Blessing to take them to Ijebu. Samuel’s story was corroborated by Blessing.

According to Blessing, they were arrested at Ketu on their way to Ijebu- Ode, in Ogun State.

Blessing said: "We contracted Samuel to take us to Ijebu. We had scheduled to go to Ijebu-Ode last Saturday, but he declined, insisting that it was too late; we agreed that he should pick us up around 4.30am or 5: am on Sunday. As agreed, he arrived on time. We were already on our way when some policemen accosted us.  When they stopped us, they discovered money and some phones inside the bag I was holding. When I couldn’t explain where I got the money and the phones from, we were arrested. During interrogation we confessed to the policemen of being kidnappers. We were brought to Lagos.”

Owoseni, however, said the gang is responsible for the series of kidnapping in Epe and Ikorodu areas of the state. He said that efforts are currently ongoing to arresting other fleeing members of the gang.