By Evelyn Usman
Plan to kidnap the son of a bank executive has been foiled by the Lagos State Police command, with the arrest of three suspected members of the syndicate, two of whom were discovered to be ex-militants from the Niger Delta region.

Surprisingly, one of the ex-militants attributed failure of the kidnap plan to “police network in Lagos,” explaining that for the mission to have been accomplished, there would have been bloodbath on the assigned day.

Recovered from the suspects were liquid substances identified as Halothane and Valium which they allegedly intended to inject their victim to facilitate his losing consciousness before carrying him to their hideout, somewhere in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Mastermind of the botched kidnap, identified as a staff of Chevron Plc and owner of one of the four-star hotels in Ibadan.

Parading the suspects before newsmen at the command headquarters, Ikeja, Tuesday, the command boss, Mr Marvel Akpoyibo who described the gang as a sophisticated one, said the “events that led to the arrest of the suspects started on June 1, 2010, when the command’s Intelligence Unit intercepted information that a group of persons had perfected plans to kidnap a high profile target in Lagos.

The plot

“Members of the gang were said to have intended to kidnap the target victim from his office in Lagos Island and thereafter whisk him away to Ibadan, after which a demand for ransom will be made.”

Acting on the strength of the information, Akpoyibo said a massive man hunt for the suspected criminals was initiated and under cover operatives were deplored around the office and premises of the target victim unknown to them.

The arrest

This paid off as two of the suspects,  were arrested while monitoring their victim’s movement in two vehicles; an Infinity Sports Utility Vehicle and a Kia Sportage SUV with number plate RJ 58 KJA

Preliminary investigation, according to Akpoyibo, indicated that “the kidnap plot was hatched and masterminded by  a staff of Chevron Plc, whose wife works in one of the companies owned by the father of the target victim. The suspect, working with the aid of a female accomplice, one Anita now at large, recruited other suspects from the Niger Delta to carry out the actual kidnap.

The men were promised a cash reward of N10 million from a windfall of N50 million expected to be made from the illicit deal if the victim was successfully taken to Ibadan.

The 36-year-old principal suspect,kept mute when approached. And when he eventually showed interest to talk, he said, “ I do not have anything to say. My lawyer asked  me to keep quite. If you want to hear my side of the story, then, come to court.”

Looking confident, one o f the ex-militants,  an indigene of Bomadi, Delta state, said he was offered the sum of N200,000 to mobilise before leaving his station for Lagos, by a friend.

“But on reaching Lagos, we discovered that police network in the state is higher than that in every other states and thus it became difficult for us to carry out the plan. We were given the victim’s picture and his vehicle’s registration number and were monitoring his movement from his house to his place of work which is just about five minutes drive. I guess our movement must have been suspected by policemen on patrol and we were arrested.”

He maintained that he was no longer a bad man, lauding the initiative of the amnesty programme and informed however that “if we had carried out the kidnap with such police network, there would have been blood shed.”