By Ifeanyi Okolie

A notorious Kidnapping  Segun Akinsola (24)  met his waterloo recently in Lagos when detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) arrested him for allegedly  spearheading  the abduction of a 14-year-old boy at  Ikotun.

The same suspect had early this year, with one Lekan Faniran, kidnapped  a six- year-  old boy from his church  at  Christ Embassy  in  Ago Palace way but he was arrested and later  released on bail.

However after his release, he (Akinshola)  recruited  two more persons which included  Lekan Salawu,( 26), Taiwo Ashiru (26 ) into the gang.
Sources at the  Criminal Investigations Bureau revealed  that the  gang‘s target were mainly defenceless children.

It was  also gathered that  Salawu who resides at Ikotun had spotted the 14-year-old boy (whose identity was not disclosed  for security reasons) and after proper checks, contacted Akinshola the gang leader.

Akinshola,  a 200 level Business Administration student of Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun State told inquisitive reporter, “ I  reside at  Ifageyemi street in Shanginsha  but I raced to Ikotun when  Salawu alerted me about the boy and we leant that his father was very rich.  When I got to Ikotun,  I went to the boys house, met him and some of his friends and I became friendly with him.

He gave me his  phone numbers  and I gave him mine and we  communicated on phone.  After one month, he called to inform  me that he wanted to buy a poppy dog and he wants me to lead him to where he could get it. Firstly,  I took him to a place at Ikotun Bus-stop but we couldn’t buy it there, then I alerted  other members of the gang to get ready that I was bringing the boy.

So, I asked him to follow me to Igando where we could also get poppies. With proper arrangement on ground,  we abducted him and hid him at  Fanirans house.

“After we had successfully kidnapped him, I called Taiwo to watch over him and we instructed him to always feed him while  we negotiate with his father.

Later,  I went to the boy and told him I wasn’t betraying our friendship but   I was  only doing this  because I want to get some money  from his father.  I told him  to cooperate with us which  he accepted and gave us his father`s  phone number,

“When  we  contacted his father, we told him first that his son was with us and  he asked to speak with him which he did, after they talked, we threatened to kill the son if he doesn’t cooperate with us, he asked us what we wanted and we requested for 15 million naira. He pleaded with us to release his son that he doesn’t have such an amount of money. After series of negotiations  we agreed on N500.000 .

“The first time he asked us to come get the money at the spot we agreed, when we got there to collect the money,  we suspected  police presence and we left  with out collecting the money.

One week later which made it two weeks the boy was in our custody, his father called us this time they dropped the money and we took it safely  and we dropped the boy off  under  the bridge  in Ogudu.”

Explaining how  he was arrested  Akinshola  said  some police men who knew him invited him to the state police command at Ikeja  “ I  got a call from some police men who knew me after my first stay at the CIB,  I went there with Faniran.   When we got there, they brought out Taiwo and asked him if he could identify us.   That was how they  arrested me”.

Narrating how he was arrested Taiwo Ashiru  who  watched over the boy at their  hideout  said the only money he got from the deal was just N40,000. “  I was at my house at Bashorun street in Ajose, Ikorodu when I received a  call from a woman who told me that she knew me. After she convinced me, we  became friends and were going out.

After a little while, we met at an  eatery in  Ikorodu area.   While at the eatery,  the  police swooped on us and  they arrested  me and took  me to their station.   They tortured me for  three days and they also brought out all my telephone conversations and I confessed all I knew about the kidnap. I think some thing went wrong some where.

The mistake was from Akinshola.   After they collected the ransom, they called me with the boy`s phone and they asked me  to drop off the boy. When the boy`s parents found him, they went through his phone and saw my  phone number and they went to the network providers and they got my details from them and after that, they planted a woman undercover who later became my friend.”

The Lagos State  Police Command Public Relations Officers (SP )Frank Mba who paraded the  suspects  before newsmen  said the  boy’s parents   contacted the police when he received a call from the bandits who reportedly requested a sum N15 million naira.

“When the Commissioner of Police heard of it, he ordered  full investigations into the case and the parents were advised to continue with the negotiations while the police track down the suspects.

Mba who refused to give official account on how the police arrested the bandits  for security reasons  said , “Parents should not allow their children to stray unguided, and they should teach their children to be careful with strangers. It is also very important for parents to conduct background check on their workers, because such workers can pass on useful information to kidnappers.”