his neighbour, Precious Ogundiran, a student, had his plans recently
foiled by the police in Ogun State. He revealed he took to
the crime after hearing the news of how billionaire kidnapper,
Evans, made millions of dollars from
kidnapping. Read more details after cut
Ogundiran lives with her parents at Lemode, in the Ijoko area of the
state and is the only child of the family.
have discussed his plan to abduct Ogundiran with a vigilante in the
neighbourhood, telling him that they could get as much as N5m ransom
from her parents.
with the father of seven, and later divulged the plan to Ogundiran’s
father, a lecturer at the National Open University of Nigeria on
Victoria Island, Lagos State.
the case to the police at the Agbado division, leading to the arrest of
the suspect on Monday.
detectives, led by the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Sunday Ominijo,
laid in ambush at a hotel in Agbado, where Alatunse and the vigilante
had agreed to meet.
“The police
team asked the vigilante to call the suspect on the telephone, and tell
him that the lady had been kidnapped. He agreed to come down to the
hotel so they could contact the father for a ransom. The father is a
senior lecturer at NOUN.
“While he was with the vigilante at the
hotel, the team hanged around. The vigilante told him that the victim
had been kept somewhere and that they should discuss about the ransom.
“He
said they would request N5m from the lecturer and that he would take 60
per cent of the money while the vigilante would get 40 per cent. The
operatives swooped on him in the process. He has confessed to the
crime.”
Ikire, Osun State, owned up to the botched kidnapping, saying he took to
the crime after hearing the news of how the notorious kidnapper,
Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans, made millions of dollars from
kidnapping.
said he got Ogundiran’s phone number and some other details from a shop
owner in the area, adding that the trader was not aware of his plan.
“I
am also a commercial motorcycle rider and the vigilante rode on my
motorcycle on June 16 in the evening. We were discussing how kidnapping
had become a way of making quick money. I explained to him how Evans
made a lot of money from kidnapping and suggested we should also try our
luck.
“I told him that I knew a lecturer, who had one child, and
that we would make millions of naira from the man if we kidnapped his
daughter. He said he was also interested and we exchanged contacts. He
asked me to provide him with information about the girl, especially her
phone number, while he promised to look for more persons to facilitate
the kidnapping.
“It was on Monday that he called me on the
telephone that the girl had been kidnapped and that I should come to a
hotel in Agbado to discuss the ransom. We were in the hotel when the
police arrested us. On getting to the station, I realised that it was a
set-up.”
him and his family in the last three months and that he wanted to use
the ransom to assuage his suffering.
“I have seven
children with two wives. One of my wives died recently and I don’t have
money to take care of the children. This is the first time I would
attempt kidnapping. I am appealing for mercy,” he added.
Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said
further investigations on the case would be carried out at the command
headquarters in Abeokuta.
“The
Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Illiyasu, has directed that the case
should be transferred to the anti-kidnapping section of the command for
discreet investigations.”