An armed robbery suspect, Ikechukwu Daniel, also known as Ike, has disclosed that his gang hatched a plan to kidnap the businessman Femi Otedola but it was foiled by the police.
He also confessed that his gang, which was linked to the kidnap of Senator Iyabo Anisholowo, operated with military uniforms and hijacked three trailers on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Ike was arrested sometime in June at festac town in Lagos while negotiating the ransom of a victim kidnapped in Ibadan. His disclosure emerged following Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris’s directive to his Intelligence Response Team (IRT) to arrest anyone linked to the kidnap of Senator Iyabo Anisholowo as reported to the IGP.
Within a few days of receiving the instruction, the IRT operatives arrested one Mohammed Babuga, and he owned up to the fact that he and one Mamman masterminded the kidnap. He confessed that he and Mamman robbed some people in Kwara State, along Kaduna road.
They dispossessed innocent motorists of their belongings. During an argument with Mamman, however, Babuga said that he slapped the other for disrespect towards him as gang leader and the carelessness that put the police on their trail.
Mamman, he said, got angry and went away to form his own gang of kidnappers with Boyi, Abubakar, Alayidi and Ike as members. Led by one Mohammed, the gang operated with three rifles: an AK 47, AK 49 and a pump action gun.
Mamman’s gang confessed to have carried out six kidnapping raids: two in Ibadan, two in Ilorin and two in Kebbi State, and various ransoms were collected. The Kebbi State operation fetched the gang six million while it got N26.1 million from the Ilorin and Ibadan cases.
Muhammedu Ganiu, who was also arrested, said his gang members were Saliu Nanayi and Katune. When Ike was arrested, Ganiu added, one Clinton and some men of Fulani stock joined their gang.
Babuga, aged 32, said: “I am from Kebbi State. I am married with two children. I grew up in Ilorin and studied Business Administration at Kwara Polytechnic. In 2011, I used to drive some armed robbers who usually rob on the Kaduna road in Kwara State. I used to take them to the scene, and they paid me N156, 000 in three operations.
“On the third operation, when taking them back to Ilorin, some vigilante men on guard arrested us and took us to the police where we were charged to court and I was remanded in prison. While I was in prison, I met Ike. But when I left prison, I joined a kidnap gang led by Boyi and Bubah Bube, and we kidnapped a Fulani man. We got four million naira and I was given N700, 000.
“We did our second job (kidnapping) at Rejob, a boundary between Kebbi State and Niger. We collected two million and I got N250, 000. After that operation, I left Kebbi and relocated to Oyo State because there were no good roads. Boyi called me and said he wanted to join me, and he had an AK 47 rifle. One Abubakar, a herdsman, also had a pump action gun.
“We contributed money and we bought a Honda Bullet car. Boyi brought a job which was to kidnap a man, but before we went for the job, Ike came and joined us and we did four jobs together before I was arrested. I was arrested because of a senator’s kidnap case.”
Ike, aged 28, confessed that he dropped out of school and took to a life of crime. “I am from Imo State,” he said. “I dropped out from school in ABU Zaria. I was reading laboratory science in school, but I went to LAUTECH to initiate some new students (into robbery), but after the process we were arrested on our way back home. I was taken to prison and I spent one year in prison. My case was later struck out of court. When I returned I could not go back to school.
“I was born and bred in Kaduna State and I speak the Hausa Language fluently. While I was in prison, I made friends with Mohammed, who is Fulani. We were in the same cell. After my one year in prison, I realised that prison wasn’t a place for reformation and I discovered that inmates were arranging jobs from the prison.
“Mohammed came out of prison before me. But when I came out, he told me that he had joined a kidnapping gang.
“Before I went to prison I was into diversion (of goods). When I came out of prison I went back into diversion, and I did two jobs, but Mohammed asked to come and join his kidnap gang. In 2014, I joined Mohammed’s gang and we kidnapped a man. I don’t know the man’s name and we kept him in a forest in Ilorin, and we were paid five million naira.
“On the second job, we kidnapped an Alhaji who was one of the people who later died at the stampede in Mecca. I did the negotiation in that kidnapping case and we got N15 million from the man’s family. I got N2 million as my share. I bought a car with my share.
“The third operation was in Kwara State. We kidnapped a man who identified himself as Akintola. We received three million naira as ransom from the family. On the fourth operation, we kidnapped a victim who did not pay us something reasonable. I stay in festac town. I paid the rent myself and I stay alone,” Ike concluded.