The Kidnap suspects
After kidnapping a four-year-old boy, Alonge Oluwa Tumishe and obtaining a N5million ransom, a gang of kidnappers have been finally apprehended by the police, Vanguard reports.
Police authorities, yesterday, disclosed that its operatives at the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, SIRT, trailed the suspects to their hideouts in Ishaga, Agege and Egbeda areas of Lagos State, and arrested three of them. They also recovered also recovered a locally made gun, while two other members of the gang are currently at large.
The suspects who identified themselves as Paul Ibara, Ifeanyi Obi and Tunde Edu, confessed during an interview that poverty pushed them into crime.
Two of the suspects, Edu and Obi also disclosed that Ibara, who usually identified himself as Mopol lured them into the gang. The 36-year-old Ibara, a native of Akwa-Ibom State told Crime Guard that he went into crime because he wanted to save his father, who he said was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"I live with my wife and children at Ishaga. I went into crime because my father was sick," Ibara said.
But 32-year-old Ifeanyi Obi, who is a native of Abia State, said the former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, pushed him into crime. Obi stated that his shop at Ladipo Spare Parts Market was demolished by the Fashola government in 2012, and he became frustrated. He lamented that his frustration led him to Paul who eventually led him to kidnapping.
Obi narrates, “I am not married. I came to Lagos in 2008. I am not educated. I am from a very poor family. After serving my boss for seven years at Ladipo, my boss settled me with his shop and some money. From there, I started doing my own business.
“On December 28, 2012 I was at my village and I got news that former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola had broken our shops. When I returned to Lagos, I couldn’t find any of my goods. A few days later, one of my customers called me to bring a spare part for him at Abattoir, opposite an RRS base from where he took me to the shop of a Mopol man’s wife and he introduced him to me and we became friends. I told him that I wanted to sell my SUV and I needed money to start afresh and that I had lost all my money in my shop when it was demolished because I stocked my shop before travelling for Christmas. He told me that there was job that would pay me good money. He told me that the man was very rich and would easily pay. After the ransom was paid, I was given N700,000 as my share.”
“On December 28, 2012 I was at my village and I got news that former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola had broken our shops. When I returned to Lagos, I couldn’t find any of my goods. A few days later, one of my customers called me to bring a spare part for him at Abattoir, opposite an RRS base from where he took me to the shop of a Mopol man’s wife and he introduced him to me and we became friends. I told him that I wanted to sell my SUV and I needed money to start afresh and that I had lost all my money in my shop when it was demolished because I stocked my shop before travelling for Christmas. He told me that there was job that would pay me good money. He told me that the man was very rich and would easily pay. After the ransom was paid, I was given N700,000 as my share.”