Facts have emerged on how the police arrested the kidnappers of some Lagos landlords and also foiled the gang’s attempt to kidnap the traditional ruler of Ibeju-Lekki, a highbrow community in Lagos State.
The police authorities in Abuja, the nation’s capital city, said it foiled a kidnap attempt on the Onibeju of Ibeju-Lekki, Oba Rafiu Salami, with the arrest of five members of the gang of kidnappers, who had abducted three landlords and their trainer, during a routine exercise at the Isheri North Area of the state penultimate Saturday.
The leader of a kidnap gang, identified simply as Osama, has also confessed that he resorted to kidnapping people for ransom as an ex-Niger Delta militant following the stoppage of the monthly stipend he and other former militants were getting from the Federal Government on account of the presidential amnesty programme.
Police sources said the dreaded gang of kidnappers, who had been terrorising communities around the riverine areas of Lagos and Ogun states in recent times, were in the final stage of their plot to abduct Oba Salami when operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) swooped on them.
The suspects, who were picked up separately in Ore in Ondo State, Sapele in Delta State, Ibafo in Ogun State and Epe and Ikorodu in Lagos State, were identified as Natei Okunna (gang leader), James Kegbe, Thank-God Segede, Trust Bourdilon and Timi Inomi.
The suspects were said to have confessed during interrogation to have received the sum of N12 million as ransom before releasing the landlords, who were identified as Kennedy Ucheagwu, Dr. Omololu Bello, Fidelis Esang and their trainer, Olalere Olawale.
While the suspected kidnappers held the landlords in their den located inside the creeks of Ikorodu, the police gathered intelligence indicating that the kidnappers had identified a new target and also sent scouts to monitor the movements of the target.
Further intelligence, according to our source, indicated that the gang’s new target was Oba Salami and they were putting final touches to their plan to abduct the monarch.
The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, in an effort to prevent a repeat of the August 7, 2016 incident in Iba area of Lagos State where Oba Goriola Oseni, the Oniba of Ibaland, was kidnapped and a ransom on N15.1 million was paid as ransom before he was released, swiftly deployed operatives of the IRT led by CSP Abba Kyari to Lagos State, with a mandate to trail and apprehend all the suspects involved in the case.
The first suspect, James Kegbe, a.k.a JJ, was arrested in his house in Ore town, Ondo State, while the gang leader, Natei Okunna, also known as Osama, an Ex-Niger Delta militant, was traced to his hideout in Sapele, Delta State. The three other suspects were arrested in Ogun and Lagos states.
Narrating his involvement, Osama, the gang leader, lamented that he went back into crime as a beneficiary of the presidential amnesty for Niger Delta militants in 2009 because the Presidential Amnesty office stopped paying his monthly stipends.
The 29-year-old explained that he was trained as a marine pilot in South Africa through the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), but when he returned to Nigeria, he could not secure a job and had to survive on the monthly stipend he was getting from PAP. But in 2015, he said, PAP stopped paying him and others. So he relocated from his home town in Warri North Local Government to Lagos State where he joined some of his friends and brothers who were into pipeline vandalism in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
He said: “When I came, Vicker accommodated me and showed me what they were doing. First, we were vandalising pipelines and selling the products. But when it stopped, we moved into kidnapping. Our camp was formerly in the creeks of Shawo in Ikorodu. But when the army started bombing the area, we moved away and set up a new camp inside the creeks of Ajegunle area of Ikorodu. We did several kidnappings around that area.
But when the job to kidnap the landlords at Isheri came, I didn’t go with them, because I am like the boss. I was the one who deployed the guy who went on surveillance. And on the day they struck, I was at the camp when they brought the men and I gave instructions that they should be properly fed. I wasn’t the one who did the negotiation because I left the camp three days after they brought the men and I went to stay with my girlfriend in a hotel.
“When the ransom was paid, I was called to come for my share and I asked one of my boys to bring the money to me in my hotel room. When I counted it, the total sum was N500,000. They told me that everyone in the camp got a share of the money.
“But before the money came, we were also making plans to go to Ibeju-Lekki to kidnap the oba of that area. An informant brought the job to us and the person said security around the king was very weak. We sent him to watch the man’s movements and tell us how often he comes to the waterside. Our informant gave us a positive result, but we were yet to choose a date for the operation when I was arrested.”
Another suspect, Jemes Akegbe, a native of Arogbo in Ondo State, said: “I was in my house in Ore when I was arrested. I am a fisherman and I joined Stone’s gang for kidnapping because I was not making enough money from my fishing job.
“We were seven that went for the job, and we went with one boat and five rifles. Our informant told us that the landlords would come out in the morning to jog around the area. Four of us stood at the roadside with guns, waiting for them. When they sighted us, they were scared and started running. We went after them and shot into the air. Four of them lay on the ground and we kidnapped them, while the others escaped.
“After we kidnapped them, it was Julius and senior man who negotiated and collected the ransom from the people at Ajegunle. I was given N300, 000. I was arrested in my house while I was relaxing with my family.”
Thank-God Jegede, 27, who also hails from Arogbo town in Ondo State, said he worked as a cleaner in a hotel in Isheri North. He said it was his stepfather, known as MB, who gave the job to the kidnappers. But he said he was not aware when the man contacted the kidnappers.
According to him, “my stepfather did not tell me about this plan. It was one of my friends we call Trust who told me that they were planning the kidnapping. It was Trust that also told me that it was my stepfather that brought the job to them. The man is married to my mother and they have four children together. The man is a fisherman and a hunter. He normally hunts inside the Isheri bush and lives in an uncompleted building within the area with my mother.
“After I was told about the job, I indicated interest and I was told that my role would be to monitor the movements of our targets and I should alert them the moment I saw them jogging. I was given N300,000 and my stepfather was given N500,000.”
But 28-year-old Trust said that he bought all the foods the landlords ate while in captivity, adding that after the ransom was paid, he and Akegbe led their victims out of the camp and dropped them off at a suitable spot where they found their ways home.
Narrating his role, he said: “I am a trader and I sell foodstuffs with my wife at Odo Kekere area of Ikorodu. I have always been part of the gang, and when we got the landlords job and wanted to kidnap our victims, they ran and we shot into the air. Four of them lay on the ground and we kidnapped them. It was Osama that taught me how to shoot. I got N300,000 as my share.”
The Force Public Relations Officer, Don Awuna, who confirmed the arrest, stated that the Inspector General of Police would not relent in his efforts to combat crime and criminality in the country and ensure the safety of all members of the public.
He also said that efforts were in top gear to arrest more suspects, adding that those arrested will be charged to court.