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• I needed money to marry my wife, says suspect
Operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested three members of a kidnapping syndicate allegedly based in Agadagba community, Ondo State, who reportedly travelled to Lagos to abduct residents and collect ransom from their relatives.
The suspects, identified as Semi Buawe, Bamure Telemowei and Oluwatomi Obosi, allegedly invaded the Ijedodo area of Lagos State and abducted an unidentified businesswoman.
The gang, reportedly led by a notorious kidnapper simply identified as ID, allegedly kept the victim in captivity for three days before releasing her after collecting N21 million ransom from her relatives.
Police sources said the syndicate planned its operations in Ondo State before travelling to Lagos to carry out the abductions, after which the members returned to their base in Ondo State with the ransom collected from the relatives of their victims.
The Lagos State Police Command is said to be on the trail of the gang leader, ID, who is allegedly responsible for several kidnapping operations in different parts of the country.
One of the suspects, 34-year-old Buawe, a sawmill worker, confessed to participating in the abduction of the Lagos-based businesswoman.
He, however, claimed that ID persuaded him to join the operation because of his extensive knowledge of Ijedodo and its environs, having lived in Lagos in the past.
Buawe, who also confessed to participating in previous kidnapping operations, particularly in Edo State, claimed that he had decided to turn a new leaf but was persuaded by ID and some of his associates to participate in the latest operation.
The suspect said: “My name is Semi Buawe. I am an indigene of Agadagba in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State. I work at a sawmill in Ondo State. I was staying in Lagos before, but I returned to my hometown to do business.
“I have been into kidnapping since 2010, but ID and I were not in the same gang. He came to me in April and told me that he had a job in Lagos and wanted me to be part of the operation.
“Initially, I declined because I had decided that I wanted to quit kidnapping. He kept calling and begging me. Later, he brought some of his friends to beg me and I agreed to join them. They needed my experience and knowledge of Lagos because I had lived in Lagos before.”
Buawe further narrated how the gang allegedly selected its victim, saying: “When we came to Lagos, we had no specific target. ID just said that we were going to Ijedodo to look for any rich man.
“We were walking when ID suddenly stopped in front of a very beautiful duplex. He concluded that the owner of the house must be very rich.
“He went inside the house with one other member of the gang, Alfred, while Oluwatomi and I watched the environment. Later, he came out with a woman and we headed straight into the bush in the same area.
“While we were about entering the bush, the woman started shouting for help and a man who was walking by tried to intervene on her behalf. But ID brought out a gun and shot into the air. The man went on his knees and started begging us.
“I was almost running away, but ID cautioned me.
“When we got into the bush, ID was the one negotiating with the woman’s family. He asked her if she was the owner of the house. The woman was calling her people.
“After two days, ID and two others left the bush and kept the woman with Tommy and me.
“The woman refused to eat the food we gave her. On the third day, she agreed to eat biscuits, and that was the only thing she ate in three days.
“When we exhausted the foodstuffs we had with us, we checked her phone and transferred N150, 000 to a POS operator around Ijedodo and collected the money in cash.”
The suspect also disclosed how the gang allegedly negotiated the ransom with the victim’s family.
He said: “ID came back and told us that he had negotiated with the woman’s family. They initially offered N16 million, but ID rejected it. We were even telling him to collect it like that, but he eventually collected N21 million, one bottle of Eagle Schnapps, a power bank and 1kg of frozen turkey.
“We collected the ransom in dollars. I got N1.5 million. I did not even use the money for anything tangible because the money was small. I collected the woman’s phone. She had two phones and I collected one of them.”
Buawe said he later had a disagreement with the gang leader after they returned to Ondo State.
He said: “When we got to Ondo State, I had a disagreement with ID. I told him I didn’t want to go with him again. He thought I wanted to set him up.
“I gave the woman’s phone to a Hausa bureau de change operator and he has yet to pay me.”
Another member of the gang, Oluwatomi Obosi, said he was introduced to the syndicate by ID, whom he described as the husband of his girlfriend’s sister.
Obosi, who said he agreed to participate in the operation because he needed money to get married, narrated how he became involved in the crime.
Tommy, as he was called by members of the gang, said: “I am 37 years old. Sometime in April, I was with my girlfriend at our house in Ikorodu when my mother told me to be very serious with the relationship. She advised me to pick a lady and marry so that I could be responsible.
“It was my grandfather who advised me to go to our hometown in Agadagba, Ondo State, to look for a decent girl and that I should look for money to do a proper marriage with her.
“I saw a lady in Agadagba and proposed to her. She insisted that I must get the consent of her elder sister before we could start any relationship.
“It was in the process that I was introduced to ID, who was the leader of our gang. He was the husband of my girlfriend’s sister.
“When I told him that I stayed in Lagos, he told me about the kidnapping plan. He wanted me to translate Yoruba into the language understood by other members of the gang whenever they abducted a Yoruba victim.”
Obosi claimed that his desire to raise money for marriage made him agree to participate in the operation.
He said: “I only agreed to follow them for the operation because I needed money to marry as soon as possible.
“I got N2.5 million after the operation, but when we got to Agadagba, ID collected N200,000 from all of us.”
The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, SP Abimbola Adebisi, confirmed the arrest of the suspects and said operatives were on the trail of other members of the gang.
She warned criminals operating in the state that the police would continue to intensify efforts to track them down.
Adebisi added that there would be no hiding place for criminals in Lagos State.
