A suspected kidnapper, Bashiru Abubakar a.k.a Maku-Maku, who was among the syndicate members terrorising commuters Lagos/Ibadan expressway, has been paraded with two others, Babuga Umaru (27) and Mohammed Umar (30).
Abubakar and others were arrested after they struck at Onigaari axis on the expressway on January 7, killed a commercial driver, shot a passenger and kidnapped four victims.
Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, the state Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, said that after the incident, the command, apart from sending operatives into the forest surrounding the area to comb it for the rescue of the victims, swiftly deployed intelligence to fish out the perpetrators.
This, she said, led to Abubakar’s arrest, and during interrogation, he mentioned Babuga Umaru, Bellel, Ibrahim, Buyo, Habu Kosoko, Danliti and one with the appellation ‘Ontop’, currently at large with surnames unknown, as members with whom he carried out the kidnap operations.
Abubakar also confessed that on January 6, at about 8 pm, he used his motorcycle to convey Bellel and Ibrahim into the bush at Onigaari where they alighted before striking the following day.
He opened up on his role as the supplier of food and hard drugs to the kidnap gang members whenever they were in the forest. He added that he was given N10,000 for his role, with the promise that a motorcycle would be purchased for him.
The police commissioner said that preliminary investigation indicated that the arrested suspects had knowledge of the January 7 kidnap operations, while the forensic analysis of their phone numbers linked them up with the crime.
Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, with other senior police officers at the press briefing, on Thursday
Two of the victims, Opaleye Folahan and one Sekinat Tiamiyu were said to have identified the suspects as part of those that kidnapped them.
Folahan, who narrated his experience to journalists, said he was coming from Lagos State with his heavily-pregnant wife and daughter when the kidnappers emerged at about 8 pm and shot him in the neck.
He stated further that they initially took him, his wife and daughter into the bush but shortly after set the wife and daughter free, in order to facilitate quick payment of ransom. Folahan said that he paid N2.75 million as ransom before he was released.
