A Teacher and Two Others Arrested for Kidnapping In Lagos

The Lagos State Police Command on Wednesday arrested a teacher and two others for allegedly kidnapping a 62 - year - old woman , Kudirat Adeboye.
The teacher, Ifeanyi Chukwuleta, Kolawole Alani and Rasheed Adetunji were arrested while their gang leader , Niyi Omosola , was shot dead as he tried to collect N 3 million ransom. The command also said it recovered one double barrel pistol, two expended cartridges and six live cartridges from the suspects .

The Commissioner of Police in the State , Mr Kayode Aderanti , said a complaint was received by the Divisional Police Officer, Akodo Division that the sexagenarian was kidnapped on Eleko /Epe Expressway. According to him, on receiving the information , he directed the officer in charge of the Special Anti - Robbery Squad (SARS ) , DSP Abba Kyari , to fish out the hoodlums .

He said when the kidnappers contacted the victim’ s family, they initially demanded N 50 million but later agreed to collect N 3 million after six days of negotiation. Aderanti said the OC SARS led two decoy operatives to epe where the kidnappers re - directed the victim’ s son to Ijebu Ode road .

He said: “` One of the kidnappers came out from the bush and collected the ransom but was pursued by SARS decoy operatives.  When he noticed the presence of operatives , he opened fire on them and the police fired back at him and he sustained gunshot injuries.

“ The wounded kidnapper , Omosola , led operatives to the forest where we rescued the victim. Omosola died later , but we arrested three more members of his gang, ” Kyari said.

Blaming poverty for his foray into kidnapping , Chukwuleta said: “ I joined kidnapping because of poverty. “I am a teacher and a teacher is supposed to be an exemplary figure but when the chips are down , what can a man do ?
“ My salary as a teacher is too paltry. I start begging for transport money in less than one week after receiving it .

“ Whether you believe it or not , I am a good guy who was pushed into crime by poverty. My journey into crime was when I met our leader who has been killed by the police .
“ My duty was to watch victims in the bush . I will be armed with cutlass and threaten victims that I would kill them if they tried to escape .

“ I have watched over three victims , but I wept in the last one , that of the 62 - year old woman who put us in this mess . When the woman was crying , I just knew she was old enough to be my mother and I started weeping too .
“ I now unbound the woman and assisted her to escape .

May God bear me witness, I did not know that our leader had gone to collect ransom and he was shot dead by the police, he said.