K!dnappers force Lagos heavily pregnant woman to travel 334 kilometres to deliver ransom

Detectives in Lagos have continued to unleash terror on kidnappers and have carried out several onslaughts against their deadly activities by making several arrests.

into action and arrest perpetrators of the crime.

Police sources said they kept a tab on both the family and other criminal elements in the area, but narrowly missed their target while they were going to drop the ransom hence they resorted to scientific, technical and human intelligence gathering.

Arrest
At the end of their frantic operation, three of the kidnappers, namely Adelaja Ikuesan, 37, Tosin Oke, 40, and Oluwabunmi Yusuf, 39, were arrested in their hideout after they shared their loot.

Confession
The suspects narrated how the operation was carried out to Sunday Vanguard and lamented that, if set free, they would never take part in any criminal act again in life. Ikuesan said to be a professional speedboat driver, told our reporter: “I am from Pare town in Igbokoda LGA of Ondo State. “I own two flying boats code-named Trips on Marine, with each of them having a 40HP engine.

“I knew the other suspects when we were doing bunkering, i.e., stealing petroleum products from vandalized pipelines within the creeks. “Three weeks before the operation, we met in a hotel at Ajegunle, where we finalized plans to carry out the kidnapping.

“Tosin Oke whom we call Old Soldier, brought the engine of the flying boat. “On the day of the operation, two of our members were armed with AK47s, and before taking the hostage to the creeks, we disposed him of his gold chains and other valuables.

“When we got to the creeks, I left them with Old Soldier and came back to Apapa. We benefitted from both the sale of the gold chains and the ransom paid later”.

Badagry mansion
Police sources disclosed that Oke (a.k.a Old Soldier) had been involved in bunkering and kidnapping for a long and had erected a mansion in Badary area of Lagos. The suspect admitted that he benefitted from the ransom and used it to take care of his family problems. He denied building the mansion alone from the proceeds of his crime but stated that he erected it with some members of his family.

“I honestly regret getting myself involved in this”, Oke said.
“Even my family members were questioning my involvement because they were surprised knowing I don’t involve myself in any sort of bad act. “Before, I was an agent for police at Zone 2. What could have made me involve myself in this kind of thing?.

Confusion galore
“I don’t know. Maybe, it was juju Adelaja (his colleague) used in talking me into it, I don’t know, only God understands because it is not like I didn’t have money to feed or for other things before I followed them to do this.
“I just don’t understand how the situation happened.

I don’t understand.” On his part, Adelaja said: “After he (the third suspect) met me and Old Soldier, Old Soldier collected the hand chain we collected from the victim and sold it.
“After selling it, he sent N150,000 and later, N250,000 to me. A total of N400,000 was what he sent to me. It was Old Soldier who gave me money, he was the one who changed it. He transferred from POS. “In all, I got N2.3 million from the operation”.

Proceeds of loot
The second suspect, Adelaja, also said that he used his share of the ransom to buy a new boat. The suspects said they were married. While Old Soldier said he has nine children from different women but is now married to only one, Adelaja said he has just one wife and a daughter.