Police bust 3-man kidnap gang, rescue 30-yr-old woman

Police in Lagos State, yesterday, said they have arrested a three-man gang of kidnappers, who
specialised in kidnapping young boys in Lagos and
Ogun states.
This was as 37-year-old Idowu Ajibola has been
arrested by policemen attached to the Area ‘E’ Police
Command in Festac, Lagos, for allegedly abducting a
30-year-old woman, for three years.
Lagos Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Damasus Ozuani, who paraded the suspects before newsmen, said the three kidnappers were currently being detained by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS.
Ozuani, who identified the suspects as Olalekan
Benjamin, Gbenga Sholaja and Samson Somorin, said
they were arrested when the Divisional Police Officer at Igando Police Station, Ben Osuji, received an
intelligence report on the gang’s activities and caught
a member of the gang at 12, Olowojeunjeje Street,
Egan, Igando, Lagos.
He said: “The DPO at Igando, apprehended Benjamin
and later transferred him to SARS for further
investigation. During interrogation at SARS, the suspect confessed and named some of his gang members as Sholaja and Shomorin, based in Alagbado, Lagos and Owode-Ijako, OgunState, respectively.
“The officer in charge of SARS, Abba Kyari, arrested the two suspects from their various hideouts. They
confessed to have kidnapped three children, one from Omole Phase 1, another from Alagbado area, while the third, was from Owode-Ijako, OgunState and collected various amounts as ransom from their parents.
“We also discovered during interrogation that
Benjamin is a jailbird, who was imprisoned for a similar case in 2009”
Kidnap
Meanwhile, Vanguard gathered that Modupe Brown
was a 400 level student of Business Administration at
LagosState university, LASU, when she was abducted
by Mr. Idowu Ajibola and kept in captivity for three
years.
It was further gathered that on September 9,
operatives from the Area ‘E’ Command, following an
intelligence report, stormed Sagamu, OgunState, and
rescued the victim.
They arrested one Ebun Idowu, the alleged abductor’s
mother, who watched over the victim, while the
abductor was arrested at Idumota area of Lagos.
Ozuani, who also paraded the suspects, said: “The
suspect cunningly camped the victim at three different locations during the period of incarceration: Osogbo in Ogun State, for six months; Bariga in Lagos, for another six months, while they spent over two years in Sagamu, Ogun State.
“The suspect, who hails from Abeokuta, OgunState, is
a primary school drop-out.
“He forcefully impregnated the victim, who had a baby girl with deformities because of the abductor’s refusal to have the baby immunised against polio virus.” ‘She’s my lover’
When Vanguard interviewed Ajibola, he described
Brown as his lover and that they had been cohabiting
for three years.
He said: “She told me she wanted to run away with me because her parents do not want her to get married to a man of her choice. I told her that I don’t have money but she said I shouldn’t worry, that she will look for a way out.

“Some few days later she paid N200,000 into my
account and we travelled to OsunState. Because of the nature of my job, we were moving from one place to the other. I am surprised that the police came to my house and arrested me.”
‘He hypnotised me’
However, Brown insisted that she was hypnotised and
abducted by Ajibola in 2010. She said that before her
abduction, she has never met Ajibola.
She further added that Ajibola accosted her when she
was about to pay her schools fees.
Brown said: “I lost consciousness the moment he
touched me and he asked me to go back to my house
and bring all my belongings to his house.
“That was how we started living as husband and wife.
Any time I make attempts to go, something will tell me not to go and in the process he impregnated me.
“He moved me from place to place and prevented me
from immunising my child. I regained consciousness
recently and I picked up a phone and called my mother, who brought in the police.”