By Evelyn Usman

LAGOS—We were abandoned by government after we submitted our weapons, so we went back to kidnapping, confessed four militants, who said they were responsible for the renewed kidnappings in Ijegemo area of Lagos State.

Operatives of Lagos State Police Command, who arrested them, recovered weapons and part of the ransom they got for their victims, from the suspects.

The suspects, as gathered, usually intercepted unsuspecting boat passengers in Ijegemo/ Igando area, who are heading towards Totowu, Ogun state.

They would take the victims to their camps in creeks around the area, earlier destroyed by security agents, from where they contact their victims’ relatives for ransom.

During preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the suspects—Terry, 23; Mubo, 25; Mebize, 25, and Samson, 21— all Ondo State indigenes, were militants who keyed into the Federal Government’s amnesty programme.

Confessions

Asked why they went back to kidnapping after surrendering their weapons, Mubo, said: “We are militants who voluntarily surrendered our weapons. But we went into kidnapping because government neglected us at the camp.

“We were only used to get other kidnappers. In one of the raids at a kidnappers’ hideout we led the Police to, there was bloodshed. The Police killed some kidnappers and rescued their victims.

“Government said they will pay us if we surrendered. We did and submitted our weapons at a Police station in Ikeja. But we were abandoned in the shelter. We stayed there for months without food or money.

“Out of hunger we contacted a friend who gave us a gun. But the gun was not as sophisticated as the one we dropped with the Police. We decided to go and kidnap people to get money to feed.

“We went to Ijegemo and abducted seven passengers in a boat, kept them in our hideout for a week, at the end of which we got N1.2 million from families of two of them. At the end, we freed all our victims.

“We were eight that went for the operation and we shared the money equally, with a fraction to the person that gave us the gun.

“But while sharing our loot under the bridge along Iba Expressway, some OPC boys stormed there and started shooting. As we were running, a Police patrol team accosted us.”

Corroborating his claim, another militant, Mebize, said: “When we took our weapons to Majidun Police Station, our names were taken with a promise by government to get back to us.

“But for six months we did not hear from the government and we have been borrowing money to feed. We borrow to pay our children’s school fees and take care of our parents. Right now, we are in debt.

“Out of anger, our leader Pasco, gave us weapons and a speed boat to resume our kidnapping business.”

Edgal

Briefing journalists on the arrest, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, Imohimi Edgal, said that the Command will make the state uncomfortable for kidnappers and other criminal elements who should change or leave the state.

He disclosed that 19 suspected cultists and robbery suspects that had been terrorising Ogombo, Sangotedo, Elemoro, Ikota and Ajah, among other areas in the state, were arrested in two weeks.