Police Arrest Son Who Planned How Rich Father Was Kidnapped By His Gang For Ransom

The elite squad of the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, the Special Intelligence Team, has bursted a gang in Oyo State, which specialises in kidnapping and robbing members of their community.The police arrested six members of the community.One of the suspects, Hassan Maikudi, 30, was alleged to have connived with the gang to kidnap his rich father for ransom of N1.5 million.Maikudi, who led kidnappers to abduct his father, refused to answer questions.Detectives said Maikudi monitored his father as he was going to the mosque for prayers and alerted the gang.He has however denied being the person who planned his father’s kidnap.He insisted that he was wrongly accused by his friends.

The suspects, Abdullahi Mohammed 35; Abubakar Abubakar 28; Damanya Gambo 30; Usman Idris; Usman Saidu 30; and Maikudi, 30, were arrested after several reports of armed robberies and kidnappings of notable personalities.Mohammad‎, a Fulani native of Kwara State and graduate of Mathematics from Kwara State University, said he is married with two wives and three kids.According to him, poverty forced him to embrace crime.Mohammed said: “There were several operations we did together and I usually get my share of the money. Last month, the gang went and kidnapped Alhaji Maikudi. He is a rich cattle rearer. It was his son, Hassan, who brought the job. I didn’t and still don’t know his reason for planning the kidnap of his father.

“Hassan is also my friend. He works with his father as a herdsman. They have several cows. He gave the information to Danmayan and they kidnapped his father and took him into the bush. They kept him there for one week before N1.5m ransom was paid. The man was thereafter released. During the operation, I was in the community monitoring what was happening. I attended meetings and took part in the planning of how we would carry out search and rescue of Alhaji Maikudi.”According to the police, two communities, Okeho and Iganna, both in Iwajowa Local Government Area of Oyo State, had been under the strangulating grip of kidnappers and robbers for long.The communities were made up of Fulani cattle herdsmen and Yoruba.It was gathered that the Fulanis and Yorubas, suspicious of one another, were about to embark on a clash before Arase deployed his men to go undercover, mix with members of the communities in order to find out those behind the incessant kidnappings and robberies.

Residents of these communities, which border the Republic of Benin, have been living in fear over activities of these hoodlums.The residents described those behind the robberies and kidnappings as “very powerful and children of rich Fulani herdsmen”.It was further learnt that most victims were rich cattle traders residing within Iwajowa Local Government Area and plying the route for businesses the neighbouring Benin Republic.

It was gathered that the SIT operatives, on arriving Okeho and Iganna communities, went undercover for two weeks, gathering information from locals, before swooping on the suspects.Other members of the gang are said to be at large.The SIT squad recovered N200,000 and several charms allegedly used in evading arrest.