Why We Could Not Expose Lagos Council Boss Kidnappers - Neighbours

The peace enjoyed by residents of Idomila community, located off Agbara Igbesa area of Ogun State, was, in the early hours of Monday, suspended following sporadic gun shots which jolted the residents from sleep.

The gun shots, described as one of the worst in the history of the community, were initially concluded to be from robbers. But when the dust settled, it was discovered to be a gun duel between operatives of Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja and suspected members of a notorious kidnap syndicate that used a building in the community as hideout.

At the end of the gun battle, seven suspected kidnappers were killed and two taken alive, in army uniform, with the recovery of four AK 47 rifles, 28 AK 47 magazines fully loaded, more than 1,000 rounds of AK- 47 live ammunition, army uniforms and two vehicles - a Honda CRV SUV with number plate ABC 106 AE and a Nissan Pathfinder SUV with number plate AGL 730 AZ.

The alleged kidnappers; according to the police, were responsible for the abduction of the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area boss, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, two months ago and a Federal High Court judge, who was on a visit to Lagos..

Investigation revealed that one of the suspects, alleged to be the gang leader and one of those killed during the police operation, Jonah Benjamin Osinachi, rented the three-bedroom bungalow in March, 2013. The building is situated on the outskirts of Idomila, with some uncompleted buildings around it.

Osinachi, popularly known as China, reportedly did not not stay in the apartment which gates, neighbuors said, were always shut. But three suspected members of the gang were reportedly always indoors.

Further investigation revealed that while some of the residents, majority of whom are farmers and traders, were suspicious of the activities of occupants of the building, they could, however , not place their fingers on the exact business they were into. On the other hand, some of them, who claimed to be aware they could be into kidnapping, could not disclose this to security operatives for fear of reprisal.

One of the residents, who spoke on phone, said: "Their arrest did not come to some of us as a surprise. This is because we had always known they were into kidnapping but were afraid to report to them to the police for fear of being killed. They usually drove out at odd hours , say about 12 midnight and returned about three hours later. After that, the gates would not be opened until the next morning when they would drive out again. After two to three days, we won't see them again until about two weeks later".

Corroborating this claim, Lagos State Commissioner of Police , Mr Umar Manko, disclosed that members of the gang lived in Ghana but only came to Lagos to perpetrate their heinous activities.

"Remember when the Ejigbo LCDA chairman was kidnapped, I promised Lagosians we were going to arrest the kidnappers. We later got information that these kidnappers were based in Ghana and all efforts to arrest them in Ghana failed because the country had her procedure and they insisted we could not just go there to make any arrest", Manko told journalists.

"We went to Ghana with a team of international policemen, INTERPOL, but, after 31 days without a headway, our policemen returned to Nigeria.

"Based on painstaking follow-up and surveillance in tracking these kidnappers, men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) discovered their hideout in Agbara two weeks ago. The Commander of SARS, Mr Abba Kyari, led a team of crack detectives to a suburb in Agbara where the kidnappers had their camp. "After 72 hours of waiting in ambush, the men cordoned off the area, then stormed the house where all the kidnappers gathered around 3 am".

The suspected kidnappers, it was learnt, only visited Nigeria on weekends when they lodged in hotels close to the area. Then they would storm Lagos, abduct their victims and take them to their camp at Agbara where those resident in the flat would take over. The remaining six members would, thereafter, leave for the hotel, from where they would call relatives of their victims demanding for ransom. When ransom is paid, they would blindfold their victims and drive them to another part of Ogun State where they would drop them. After any successful operation, they would leave for Ghana where they would share their loot.


Vanguard