By Evelyn Usman

Policemen attached to Lion Building Division, Lagos, have smashed a syndicate that specialised in threatening members of the public to pay certain amounts or be kidnapped, with the arrest of Abiodun Joshua, a member of the syndicate.

The syndicate’s modus operandi included contacting its targets via telephone calls or text messages, informing them that they are kidnappers.

Members of the syndicate would also inform their panic-stricken targets that they were being trailed, with detailed information of their locations and itinerant.

Thereafter, they would demand between N500,000 and above from their targets as a bailout from the planned abduction.

Luck, however, ran against Joshua, who had demanded N37 million from one of his targets, Oseni Agbamu Omolewa, so she will not be kidnapped.

Spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Dolapo Badmus, said: “On October 1, at about 11.20p.m., a woman identified as Oseni Agbamu Omolewa, who resides at Igbosere Road, Lagos Island, reported at Lion Building Division that she has been receiving telephone calls from someone who claims to be a kidnapper.

“She said that the caller told her to pay N37 million into an account number to prevent them from kidnapping her and her children.

“Immediately, the division began investigation into the matter, which resulted in the arrest of Abiodun Joshua, in far away Kano State on October 10.

“During interrogation, the suspect, who is an indigene of Osun State, confessed to the crime. Investigation is ongoing for possible arrest of his accomplices.”