Kidnapping: A crime without borders (updated)

Kidnapping: A crime without borders (updated)

Sunday, January 30, 2022 8:10 am


File: Gunmen:

File: Gunmen

By Richard Elesho

That Nigeria is a country under siege is no longer new. It started like an external aggression by nomadic herdsmen from the Sahel. Slowly, but steadily the whirl wind of insecurity blew through the country, dropping its virus for evil minded citizens to domesticate.

In November, 2021, the Ekiti State Police Command arrested a kidnapper identified as Bunmi Ogunremi alias Bafon. He is the son of the late Chief Olu Ogunremi Sesan in the Idolofin local government area, Ado Ekiti.

Forty nine-year old Bunmi, his eyes as wide as a cornered rat, narrated in a video that the various operations that he and his team had in Ekiti and outside. He confessed to being responsible for the kidnap of one Alhaji Suleiman Akinbami, a petrol dealer, on 10 January 2021 in Ado-Ekiti; abduction of one Mrs. Olalusi Dapo, the wife of a former Ekiti State Surveyor General; the kidnap of a pastor in Akure and the the abduction of Oladeinde, his mother-in-law!
On 8 November Sunday Abutu, spokesman of the police command in Ekiti, told journalists that the five locally-made guns, one Toyota Corolla car, 13 rounds of live cartridges, and two locally-made double barrel guns were recovered.
“The suspects said they usually keep their victims in his father’s house, one late chief Bafon, located at waterworks, Ado-Ekiti, and sometimes move them to Ayere forest in Kogi state before demanding for ransom.

 

*Watch the video of his confession HERE

*And another video HERE

 

“They mentioned one Banji Akeem a.k.a. Oro who was earlier arrested by the RRS operatives for the offence of armed robbery and still in RRS custody.

“They also mentioned one Samuel a.k.a. Samuel Ebira, Jimoh Dele a.k.a. Dele Petim, Dayo a.k.a. Dayo Igwe and Johnson a.k.a. Yellow Okada, who are presently at large as other members of their gang.

“Concerted effort led to the arrest of one Taiwo Fayoke ‘f’ who confessed to being their food supplier whenever victims are held hostage.”

He said a sum of N5 million reward will be given to anyone who has credible information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects at large.

“The command appreciates the good-spirited members of the public as well as the various security agencies whose cooperation and support have always helped the police,” Sunday added.

Olu Bafon

On Thursday, 4th June, 2020 when gunmen attacked a bank and police station in Isanlu, headquarter of Yagba East Local Government Area, LGA, of Kogi State, with dynamite, not a few persons concluded the attackers were Fulani bandits. More than a dozen civilians and policemen were gruesomely massacred in the assault. Pa. Kokade, a trader, narrowly escaped being hit by a bullet.
He was shocked when many months later, detectives swooped on his village, in the same vicinity, to arrest two indigenes for involvement in the attack. “What is this world turning to? If anyone told me our people can be involved in things like this, I would have argued with him. Gun…?”
Stories like that have become common place across the country. From the north to the south, east and west regular accounts of insiders abuse and collaborations make the headlines, further questioning the ethnic profiling of crime. Aside the common accounts of gunmen who abduct victims and demand money as ransom for their release, there are others who kidnap and kill for ritual purposes.
In January 2021, Osun State Police Command confirmed the arrest of seven kidnappers, including a Yoruba man and the rescue of two victims from their abductors. A combined team of members of the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, hunters, policemen, detectives from the Department of State Services, DSS, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, raided the camp of the gang around the thick Ilesha forest.
Six of the suspects were Fulani, while the seventh popularly known as ‘Jumbo’ was a resident of Omoh, in Oriade LGA. He was said to be a food supplier and informant of the group. Yemisi Opalola, Osun Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, confirmed the arrests.
On 8th May, 2021 the same police command announced the arrest of eight fleeing members of a gang from Benue State. The gang members were wanted in Benue after they abducted and killed 65-year-old Catherine Alishi, in cold blood.
Opalola shed more light on the matter.
“Prior to the arrest, Police investigations revealed that the suspects relocated to Osun State after the kidnap of the woman as a deceptive tactics to avoid arrest by the Police in Benue State,
“The suspects have also planned to use Osun State as a safe haven for the negotiation and collection of ransom even after murdering the woman in cold blood.
The police authorities identified the suspects who were all Tivs from Benue as: Orikashima David, 22, (AKA Cash money) Teryange Demenogo, 22, (AKA Small), Terngu Tortindi, 25, (AKA Kareen) and Aondoaseer Terver, 21. Others were females;  Anawuese Akough, 19, Mbalumulum Kaorga, 18, Comfort Terdoo, 22,  and Michael Msendoo, 19.
Recently a middle aged man, Rilwan Kasali was guest of the secret police. The native of Yemetu in Ibadan was nabbed in Osogbo by members of the Amotekun corps. On interrogation, he confessed to have kidnapped upto five persons and sold them to Lagos and Ibadan to someone named Abija.
The field commander of Amotekun in Osun, Comrade Amitolu Shittu confirmed the arrest and how he was handed over to the DSS, for further investigations.
In September 2021, Amotekun operatives in Oyo State burst a three-man syndicate for their involvement in ritual killing. The suspects—Muraina Ismail, Olalekan Muhideen and Abdurasheed Olanrewaju hypnotized and abducted a Septuagenarian along the Amuloko-Akanran Road. Ismail narrated how Olanrewaju contracted him to supply a human head for N35,000.
According to their confessional statement, the task was difficult. But with the help of Muhideen, they charmed the victim and skillfully whisked him to where he was beheaded. Subsequently, in a manner reminiscent of Herodias daughter with the head of John the Baptist, the duo delivered the severed head to Olanrewaju, for his money-making rituals.
About the time the trio were arrested, officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Kwara State arrested another triumvirate in Kwara State. The suspects included lsmaila Saliu, 25, who allegedly murdered his brother for a money ritual. Ismaila reportedly connived with a herbalist, Ahmed Nkwe, 44, and q other suspect to slaughter his 14-year-old sibling, Azeez Saliu, on a farm, in Kosubosu, headquarters of Baruten Local Government Area of the state.
Thirteen-year-old Endeley Comfort, a native of Sagbama, Bayelsa State narrowly escaped ritualists long knife early January. Bayelsa State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Asinim Butswat, in a statement on 4th January confirmed the arrest of three teenagers who were suspects in the case. They are; Emomotimi Magbisa, Perebi Aweke, and Eke Prince, all 15-year-old males, and natives of the Sagbama community.
The suspects allegedly accosted and hypnotised Comfort. They then took her to an apartment in the community, cut her finger, and sprinkled the blood on a mirror for ritual purposes. Some youths noticed the rather dibious movements of the suspects and raised alarm. Promptly, the culprits were apprehended and the rescued victim taken to hospital.
What passed as the most horrifying ritual killing in recent time was reserved for Abeokuta, Ogun State capital. Two teenagers, Wariz Oladeinde, 17 and Abdul Gafar Lukman, 19 and Mistaken Balogun, 20 were caught burning the head of a girl who they had killed for money ritual purposes at the Oke Aregba area of the city.
A local guard, Segun Adewusi raised the alarm on their heads as policemen moved in to effect their arrest. However, a fourth suspect, named Soliu took to his heels. The victim, identified as Rofiat, a resident of Idi Ape, was a girl friend to one of the killers.
A source conversant with the case said: “They killed Rofiat, cut her head, packed the headless body in a sack and started burning the head in a pot. They told the police in the presence of a mammoth crowd that they wanted to use it for money ritual.”
Balogun in a video shed more light. “We wanted to use just her head alone for money ritual. Soliu strangled her and he told me to assist him and we cut off her head.”
Also not long ago, the police in Ogun nabbed four young men for abducting a 13-year girl. The little girl was on errand for her parents in Ado-Odo-Ota community when the kidnappers swooped on her. After whisking the victim away, they contacted her father and demanded N500,000 for her freedom.
The rattled parent reported the matter and luckily the hoodlums were tracked and apprehended. The suspects were identified as John, 21; Adeleke, 29; Adekunle, 20  and Abbey, 20.
In December last year, the Amotekun corps in Ondo State paraded 75 suspects for various crimes. One of the suspects, Igbekele Abiodun was alleged to have participated in the abduction of four worshipers from a church in Ado lodge area of Akure, the State capital. The list is unending.
On Monday, 24 January, Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri announced the deposition of the of a paramount ruler for complicity in crime. He sacked Chief A.C.T Wongo, of Otuokpoti community for his alleged roles in the kidnap of the State’s Commissioner for Trade and Investment, Mr Federal Otokito.
The Governor who stated this when the Commissioner of Police, Mr Ben Nebolisa, and the State Director of the State Security Services, Mr Mohammed Abdullahi, presented Mr Otokito to him after his release,  appointed Chief Rescue Abe in acting capacity
The recent abduction and murder of a five-year old girl, Hanifa Abubakar by her teacher in Kano, speak to the heart. Talk of the scriptural ‘a man’s enemies are members of his household.’ Or as the Yoruba puts it, without the collaboration of the enemy within, the one outside, may not archive his evil agenda.
Since the recent upsurge in criminal activities across the country, people have advocated for stiff measures against the perpetrators and their collaborators. Apart from the security agencies other stakeholders like religious leaders, the political class, traditional institutions and governments at all levels must all join hands to end the menace of insecurity and desperation for money in society.

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