At 5pm, Olabode Olubayo heard rounds of gun fire from a building that was some few distance away from his house. He rushed out apprehensively only to be greeted by a team of plain policemen who were standing in front of a black coloured gate.
Out of curiosity, he moved closer to the gate, but a police officer who was standing at the gate made a hand signal, motioning for him to come forward. But on arriving the gate, he was shocked to find a haul of a large of large catch of ammunition stuffed in a boot of a car and subsequently three men who had been kidnapped were rescued from the house.
”It was like a joke when I saw them coming out and I could recognize one of them. He was the man we chose to be our harvest chairman in our church this year. I never knew kidnappers were in our midst.
But the policemen who busted the kidnappers may have embarked on a suicide mission. A police source who spoke with Crime Guard, said the officers invaded the kidnappers’ den with a very small cacheof ammunition.
The officer who craved for anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the press on the issue, said mobile policemen from Mopol 2, who carried out the rescue operation had just two pistols with them. “ I’m sure they weren’t expecting any form of resistance from the kidnappers.
I am sure they have been engrossed in the popular notion that kidnappers were often not properly armed. But they got exceedingly shocked when they discovered those caches of ammunition. I was told that the police officers who were in their small numbers invaded the kidnappers’ den with just two pistols. One of them even told me that they embarked on a suicide mission.
If the kidnappers had known the police was coming for them, they would have finished them. I was told that when the kidnappers learnt of the police arrival, some of them took to their heels by scaling through a fence behind their house but two others were arrested.”
According to reports, a catchment of weapons, including three rocket launchers with three rockets, eight AK 47 magazines with a total of 3,240 rounds of ammunition, four dynamites and assorted charms. Three abducted victims were also rescued from the building.
Two of the arrested kidnappers were later identified as Kenneth Okonkwo and the other Azubuike Okafor.
One of the rescued victims, Dr. Godwin Ene, 66, a surgeon, said he was on his way home from the office last Thursday, when a vehicle pulled up in front of his car, blindfolded him and was forced their vehicle. He said he was asked to pay a ransom of N600 million for his release, but he pleaded with them that he could only afford N30 million.
The second victim, Godwin Okonkwo, 56, who had spent about three weeks with the kidnappers, was said to have also been kidnapped on his way home from work on September 15, along Okokomaiko area of Lagos State, and was asked to pay a ransom of N150 million; while the third victim, Rodney Agaga, a US based Nigerian businessman, who had been in the kidnappers’ custody for five weeks, said on the day of his kidnap, the abductors shot at the tyres of his car, demobilized it before forcing him inside their vehicle. He said a ransom of N150 million was demanded from him.
On the path of the arrested suspects, Kenneth and Azubuike both blamed their involvement in the crime on one Obinna, who is still at large.
They both claimed to be errand boys for the gang. Kenneth said he was arrested on his way to collect N 2.8 million from the family of one of their victims, while Azubuike said his job was to cook for abducted victims and that the police arrested him while he was in the kitchen.
But Olubayo had remained perplexed since the discovery of a gang of kidnappers in his neighborhood, he told Crime Guard that “ we started seeing people around that building some time around June, but really don’t know who they are.
Everyone has been busy minding their own business and life had been normal. But before they actually rented that building, I saw two men surveying the area. They were actually peeping through the gate and I confronted them. I asked them what they wanted and they told me they were housing agents and they were trying to see how good the building was.
I told them to contact the owner through a sign post that was hanging on the gate. Am sure they called him and they later rented the apartment. Afterwards, I started seeing different kind of vehicles driving in and out of the compound. What really got me startled was when I saw them trying to seal up the gate, in order to prevent people from seeing what was happening inside the compound.
That day, I was driving by and I spotted one of the guys who was seen driving in and out of that compound. I greeted him and inquired what was going on and why they had failed to join the neighborhood meetings. Then the young man introduced himself as a Naval Sub-Lieutenant and he was serving at PortHacourt.
But when I looked inside the car he was driving, I discovered that the Naval uniform he hung by the door side was that of Merchant Navy. I became seriously suspicious of them. The music from that compound is often very high, likewise the generator set. It ran for over 24 hours of the day. That was why we didn’t hear screams from their victims.
The buildings around them were vacated, opposite was a vast space of a disputed land which has turned into a forest. All this may have aided their operations without anyone knowing what was going on. The police was discreet in their search for the kidnapped victims, but I’m sure they would have made more arrests if they had taken more of their time.”
The owner of the building who spoke with Crime Guard briefly on the phone said he has been asked not to speak with the press by his employers explained that he wasn’t in the know of the intentions of the people who rented his building.
According to him, “ I work for the government and that building is all I could show for all my service years. I’m based in Edo State but my elder brother facilitated the renting of that building, but we didn’t know they were going to use my house for kidnapping,” he explained
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