From Molly Kilete, Abuja
A 32-year-old man, who specialises in armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes, has narrated how his ambition to own a tricycle popularly known as Keke NAPEP, landed him in police custody.
The suspect, Mohammed Abel, a native of Olomaboro in Kogi State and father of one, said that he was lured into the criminal act by his friends who invited him from Lokoja, where he is based to come to Abuja, with a promise to buy him a tricycle, as we’ll as give him a soft loan to start his own business.
Abel said that he landed in Abuja immediately he got the phone call from his friends and had barely spent one week in the nation’s capital after his first operation with the gang when the police arrested him.
The suspect whose colleagues are now on the run said that he was arrested from the house where they had taken their victim by the police, who had unknown to him laid siege to the area.
Abel who narrated how they carried out the operation said that they had successfully intercepted a man driving with his wife
in a Prado SUV, along the Abuja international airport road at about 11:00p.m , kidnapped him and abadoned his wife with the vehicle, took the man to an unknown destination, kept him for four days while waiting for the family to pay ransom.
The police said that the wife of the man who got injured during the encounter put a call across to some of her relatives who immediately alerted the police at Iddo Division over the incident.
Upon receiving the distress call, the police swung into action, by alerting all its patrol team in and around Abuja who combed the entire city for the kidnappers without sucess.
But unknown to the police, the kidnappers had taken the victim to a house located at Sauka village where Abel was mandated alongside another member of the gang to keep watch over the victim while they engaged his family in negotiations for the ransom required to set him free.
However, they ran out of luck when the victim who sustained gunshot injuries could no longer withstand the excruciating pains and began to shout.
His shouts attracted neighbours who started hearing strange noises from the house and alerted the police who immediately swung into action.
Upon arriving the Sauka village, the police condoned off the entire exit and entry axis into the village, took over the house, got the suspect arrested and rescued the kidnapped victim.
After rescuing him, they found out that he had gunshot injuries he sustained from the kidnappers and rushed him to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) hospital, where he is currently on admission and recuperating.
Abel, who is now in police custody, is singing like a cannery bird while his accomplices are on the run.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, Abel, who is now sober, said that he has regretted his action, saying that he went into armed robbery because of the harsh economic condition in the country. He said that he was undergoing serious hardship to the point that it has not been easy for him and his family members to survive.
The suspect who claimed that initially he didn’t know his friends were into armed robbery, said that he only got to know after he joined them and saw them with guns.
On how they carried out the operation and kidnapped their victim, he said: “On that fateful day, my friends told me we will be going for a job and when I asked them the kind of job, they told me that we will be going for kidnapping and it was when I saw them with guns I knew they were going for robbery.
“We entered their vehicle, a black Toyota, which they use for their operation. Three of us sat at the back seat while the driver and another person sat in front and we started patrolling around the airport express road because they said we will get a big man there.
“True to their word, we sighted a Prado jeep with a man and woman in the car and started pursuing it and when we overtook it, the person in the front seat immediately opened fire and shot the tyres of the vehicle, forcing the car to stop and in the process they also shot the man.
“As soon as the car stopped, we rushed there and kidnapped the man, took him into our vehicle and put him in the back seat and left the woman behind and drove away with him. We took off and headed towards the airport road to the house of the person that we kept the man.
“We were in the house for about four days when one fateful morning, I was sleeping and all of a sudden the man started shouting and would not stop. The second person that was with me woke me up from sleep that this man has started shouting and before I knew what was happening, that my friend ran outside and I ran outside too, but when I got out, I didn’t know where to run to because it’s a new environment to me and I don’t know anywhere so I decided to go back inside the house. It was when I got inside that I found out the house has been surrounded by the police who broke the door open and arrested me and took me to the station.”
On how he came to Abuja, he said: “It was my friend that called me to come over that he will give me a fairly used Keke and give me loan. He asked me if I had a Keke and I said no and he sent N5,000, transport money for me to come over to pick the Keke.
“When I arrived Abuja, he came and picked me up and took me to his house; told me that we will go for a job and that after the job he will buy me fairly used Keke and put little interest on it and that was how I found myself in this situation.”
Asked how much he got from the kidnap operation, he said: “I dont know how much they bargained with the family of the man and whether they have been paid because they have not given me anything before the police arrested me.”
On how he feels having been arrested for kidnapping and armed robbery, Abel said: “I want to beg everybody especially the young people never to engage in this kind of thing because despite his promise of giving me a Keke to start by business, I did not see any Keke and now I am in this big trouble, I don’t know how to face my child and tell him that his father is a kidnapper.
“If I had known that my friends were kidnappers I would have remained in Lokoja to manage the little business that I am doing. But I was lured to come to Abuja after they promised to buy me Keke NAPEP to start a transport business. If not for that promise, I would not have come here and I have not even spent one week before I was arrested.”