We collected N200, 000 from DPO over abducted police woman — Epe kidnappers

THREE members of one of the gangs, who have been terrorising residents of Epe and neighbouring communities, have been arrested by the police.

The suspects were allegedly responsible for the abduction of a female police sergeant and a lawyer at Agbowa in February last year.

The suspects Aboy Feku, Yola Samuel and Mimo Blessing were on Wednesday afternoon paraded before newsmen by the state police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni.

The police boss said that the suspects were arrested by operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the state police command.

CP Owoseni said that the suspected kidnappers were arrested during a routine patrol of the Epe Farm Settlement and other areas by the operatives of the anti-kidnapping unit.

The police boss said “Based on the numerous kidnapping activities that have been recorded in the axis for some time, the anti-kidnapping unit of the command have been on patrol of the area on daily basis.”

The police boss added that “The operation yielded a result with the arrest of two suspects and their bike man who were on their way to pick up ransom collected from family of a victim around 6am,” he stated.

One of the suspects, 23 years old Aboy Afeku, confessed that his gang kidnapped a female police sergeant along Ejirin Road in Omu Ijebu.

He stated that the policewoman was attached to Ketu police station and she was on her way to the station when she was abducted.

Aboy said “The policewoman was inside a bus that we ambushed at Omu -Ijebu. We kidnapped her and five other people who were taken to our camp at Molajoye for ransom.”

The suspect also continued that “We were paid N200, 000 by the family of the female police. I was not among those that went for the operation, I only followed them to kidnap the lawyer at Igbodu farm and I was given N250. 000 from the N5,000, 000 paid by the family of the lawyer.”

Aboy also said that “my first operation was the one involving a female sergeant. On that fateful day, we came out from the Creek in two speedboats and laid ambush at the Molajoye Bridge.”

“While we were waiting, we saw a vehicle carrying five passengers. We pounced on them immediately they got to the bridge. They were three women and two men.” Aboy added.

He also continued that “We headed to our camp. We kept them for five days. It was while we were at the camp that we discovered that a female policewoman was among the five persons were abducted.”

The suspect also continued that “We separated her from the others. We later called the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ketu that we have abducted one of his policemen.”

“We demanded for the sum of N5million as ransom from the DPO. We also contacted the family of the policewomen. We also demanded for the sum of N5 million from them. But the DPO said he will not be able to pay N5million, at the end we collected N200 from him and collected an additional N300,000 from, the woman’s family.”Aboy stated.

Mimo Blessing also confessed to being a member of the gang, but claimed that he only cooked for the gang.

Mimo said “I came to the camp the day the lawyer was kidnapped. I don’t follow them the operations where people kidnapped.”

On how they were arrested, Mimo said “A day after receiving the N5million ransom paid by the family of the kidnapped lawyer, myself, Aboy and our bike man, Samuel, were accosted by police on the road.”

He added that “During the police search, weapons and a lot of cash were recovered from us while our gang leader, Tallest and others escaped.”