They were three of them arrested for kidnapping, but it was the
voice of Samson Shomorin that rang out and attracted attention as he and his
partners in crime, Olalekan Benjamin and Gbenga Sholaja sat before journalists.
In a clear ringing tone, he snarled: “There are kidnappers who
demand for million naira ransoms, nobody arrested them, but we that demanded
for only N20, 000, are the ones the police now arrested. Can you imagine? I’m
even ashamed that it was just because of N20, 000 that I was arrested.”
Shomorin however stopped ranting after he was asked if he knew
the gravity and the penalty that kidnapping attracted. Shomorin and Sholaja are
both graduates from the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State. While Shomorin
read Political science, his friend, Sholaja studied Accountancy.
According to him, he decided to take to kidnapping because he
could not get any employment after his youth service. He also explained that it
was his friend, Sholaja, who sold the idea of becoming a kidnapper to him.
The gang, which confessed that it had kidnapped up to three
children, said that they were arrested after one of the kidnapped children, was
able to locate where he had been kept a prisoner for days and brought his
parents and policemen to the house.
Olalekan, who spoke at length with the Daily Newswatch, frankly
confessed that he and his friends used to kidnap children on their kids way to
school.
Further revealing their modus operandi, he said: “We used to
stop them on their way to school, make friends with them and later start giving
them money anytime we see them going to school.”
Once they are assured that the kids now trusted and see them as
friends, they would kidnap the kids and start ransom negotiation with their
parents.
Though the gang said it had only kidnapped three children, but
police believed the children could be more.
Recalling the first kidnapping incident, Olalekan said: “The
first kidnap incident was last year October. The boy was 10-year-old. We
collected N100, 000 ransoms. The ransom was dropped at Sango-Ota, Ogun State.
But we took the boy to KFC in Sango-Ota, where his parents went to pick him.
“The boy was going to school when Gbenga approached him. Gbenga
was with a laptop. Gbenga stopped the boy and told him that he had liked him to
teach him how to operate a laptop. Since then, anytime the boy was going to
school, Gbenga would give him money until he finally kidnapped him.
“The second victim was at Ogun State. He was living not too far
from where Gbenga lives. We told him that our mother seized our PS2 game, that
we wanted him to assist us beg our mother to release it. We collected N160, 000
ransoms from his parents. The third one was the boy who landed us in trouble.
He is a student of the Golden Triangle College, Kola bus-stop. We also befriended
him on the road. We asked for N500,000 ransoms, but surprisingly, his parents
didn’t want to pay anything at all. It reached a stage; we were even begging
them to send money for us to use in feeding the boy.”
The parents were said to have grudgingly sent N20,000 to the
kidnappers. The boy was kept in the home of Olalekan who lived in a two bedroom
flat with his father.
Olalekan’s father stumbled upon the boy one day and ordered
Olalekan to remove the stranger from his home. The suspect’s father did not
know that the boy was kidnapped.
According to Olalekan, his father made sure that he saw to the
little boy being removed from his home. Olalekan contacted his partners and a
decision was taken.
They would cut short their losses and return the boy home.
Gbenga took the boy and dropped him at Iyana-Ipaja. He left him at Iyana-Ipaja
after giving him N500.
The little boy knew he schools somewhere around Kola area of the
metropolis and asked direction on how to reach Kola from Iyana-Ipaja from
people.
Detectives however refused to further divulge how the boy
located where he was kept captive for days and his subsequently taking his
parents and police to the place.
The Deputy Police spokesman, Ozoani Damasus explained that on
July, 9, 2013, Divisional Police Officer (DPO), in charge of Igando Police
Station, received information about a gang of suspected kidnappers living at
No. 12, Olowojeunjeje Street, Egan in Igando area of Lagos state.
He added: “Based on this information, DPO Igando swiftly
mobilised his operatives who stormed the above address and arrested one
Benjamin Faniran Olalekan and transferred the case to Special Anti-Robbery
Squad (SARS) for further investigation.
“During the interrogation at SARS office, the suspect confessed
and mentioned some of his gang members as Gbenga Sholaja and Samson Shomorin
who are based in Alagbado Lagos and Owode Ijako, Ogun State, respectively. SARS
operatives, led by SP Abba Kyarri swung into action and arrested the two suspects
on September, 29, 2013 from various places of hideout.
They all confessed to have kidnapped three children. One from
Omole phase 1, one from Kola Alagbado area and the last one in Owode Ijako, in
Ogun State. Various amount of ransom were collected from the parents, ranging
from N160, 000, N100, 000 and N20, 000 respectively.
“During interrogation, it was revealed that Olalekan Fanisan
Benjamin is a jailbird who was imprisoned for similar case of kidnapping last
year.”
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