By Emma Nnadozie, Crime Editor

When the police in Lagos dealt with a vicious gang of kidnappers that came from Eastern part of the country to waylay rich business men in Lagos, many thought such incident will not happen again. 

But it has happened again, as few days ago, the main man, said to be their sponsor, who resides abroad met his waterloo together with some members of his gang. Only one of them escaped with injuries.  

After the Ladipo incident in Lagos, about three months later, police intelligence report revealed that one Ifeanyi a.k.a Ifeko based abroad trained the eliminated gang leader of the Ladipo gang, Henry Ozoani, who turned out to be an actor in Nigeria.

The heat, which followed that July 4, 2025 encounter in Ladipo also revealed that the rattled remnants of the eliminated gang were so enraged by the police daring action against their members and vowed to revenge by storming Lagos again, this time to take their pound of flesh. 

Intelligence report also showed that they critically reviewed how police succeeded in not only thwarting their operation but killing a large number of their members. They then perfected plans to include police in their onslaught when they strike again.

They started mopping up arms and recruiting members for the Lagos operation, which they tagged “Lagos go see am.” Sources said they tagged the operation that way so as not to allow information about their operation to leak after they all blamed one another for the leakage at Ladipo that led to such colossal loss in men and ammunition.  

Police sources said while they were perfecting their plans, they did not know that the special police team that achieved results at Ladipo, Commissioner of Police Special Squad 1, under the leadership of Banti Adamu was also anxiously using intelligence reports to monitor their activities. 

It was gathered that the leader of the winning unit discreetly set up a team to monitor their activities especially when their leader, Ifeanyi, will return to Nigeria.  

Their diligence paid off on May 18, 2026, when the gang arrived Lagos not knowing that they were under police watch. They had reportedly perfected their plans of kidnapping some rich businessmen in and around Ago Palace Way, Jakande Estate, Ire-Akari and a business man at Ikotun said to be stupendously rich. 

“They were also armed with a map of some police stations to attack in Lagos in revenge of their Ladipo failed criminal outing. Thinking that they had a full proof plan, they had a three pronged approach to the operation. 

“One is, strike at Jakande Estate, pick their targets and move to far away Ikotun, carry out same operation and disappear to an unknown location. Then, the next day, complete the operaion and move back to the east with their victims and start demanding for ransom.” 

It was learned that their suspicion against each other was so heavy that the real code for the Lagos operation was only known fully by their leader, Ifeanyi. They did not want what happened at Ladipo to repeat itself.  

Unfortunately, as they were ready to descend on their victim at Jakande Estate, heavily armed detectives from SS1 swooped on them. Immediately they cited the policemen, they reportedly opened fire. Their leader, Ifeanyi, who was said to be armed with AK-47 rifle started firing at the police followed by another one with SMG rifle. 

Police reportedly returned fire and succeeded in overpowering them. One of the kidnappers, who was in front of the Siena vehicle narrowly escaped with bullet wounds and efforts to get him down failed as the operatives were avoiding bullet hitting innocent people in the ever busy Jakande main  gate. 

He alighted from the front of the vehicle and dashed into the moving crowd. There was pandemonium and police operatives avoided hitting a wrong target. But sources said as he was getting down from the vehicle, bullets from the police marksmen hit him on the hands and thighs, yet, he limped towards the crowd and disappeared.

Recovered from the bandits were: a Siena vehicle, one AK-47 rifle, two AK-47 magazines with 25 rounds of ammunition and 12 rounds of ammunition, one Toyota Corolla car, one Lexus car key and one Mercedes car key.  

IGP reacts

Meanwhile, sources said the Inspector General of Police, Tunji Disu and CP Lagos State, Fatai Tijiani who were following up with the planning and execution of the operation commended officers that achieved the feat. They also issued stern directives that the fleeing member of the gang must be arrest