A kidnap suspect, Mukaila Alatunse has revealed how the ‘success’ story of Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, otherwise known as Evans forced him into kidnapping business.
Alatunse said he wanted to make money like the notorious kidnapper, who is now cooling his heels in police custody.
The police in Ogun State foiled an attempt by the 44-year-old bricklayer, to kidnap his neighbour, Precious Ogundiran.
It was gathered that Ogundiran lives with her parents at Lemode, in the Ijoko area of the state and is the only child of the family.
The victim was said to have discussed his plan to abduct Ogundiran with a vigilante in the neighbourhood, telling him that they could make N5m ransom from her parents.
Punch reports that the vigilante played along with the father of seven, and later divulged the plan to Ogundiran’s father, a lecturer at the National Open University of Nigeria on Victoria Island, Lagos State.
The father was said to have reported the case to the police at the Agbado division, leading to the arrest of the suspect on Monday.
A team of detectives, led by the Divisional Police Ofcer, CSP Sunday Ominijo, laid in ambush at a hotel in Agbado, where Alatunse and the vigilante had agreed to meet.
The source said, “The police team asked the vigilante to call the suspect on the telephone, and tell him that the lady had been been kidnapped.
He agreed to come down to the hotel so they could contact the father for a ransom. The father is a senior lecturer at NOUN.
“While he was with the vigilante at the hotel, the team hanged around. The vigilante told him that the victim had been kept somewhere and that they should discuss about the ransom.
“He said they would request N5m from the lecturer and that he would take 60 per cent of the money while the vigilante would get 40 per cent. The operatives swooped on him in the process.”
During interrogation, Alatunse, a native of Ikire, Osun State, owned up to the botched kidnapping, saying he took to the crime after hearing the news of how the notorious kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, made millions of dollars from kidnapping.
He said, “I am also a commercial motorcycle rider and the vigilante rode on my motorcycle on June 16 in the evening.
“We were discussing how kidnapping had become a way of making quick money. I explained to him how E v a n s made a lot of money from made a lot of money from kidnapping and suggested we should also try our luck.
“I told him that I knew a lecturer, who had one child, and that we would make millions of naira from the man if we kidnapped his daughter. He said he was also interested and we exchanged contacts.
“He asked me to provide him with information about the girl, especially her phone number, while he promised to look for more persons to facilitate the kidnapping.
“It was on Monday that he called me on the telephone that the girl had been kidnapped and that I should come to a hotel in Agbado to discuss the ransom. On getting to the station, I realised that it was a set-up.
“I have seven children with two wives. One of my wives died recently and I don’t have money to take care of the children. This is the last time I would attempt kidnapping. I am appealing for mercy.”
The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said further investigations on the case would be carried out at the command headquarters in Abeokuta..
He said, “The Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Illiyasu, has directed that the case should be transferred to the anti-kidnapping section of the command for discreet investigations.”
