How we planned to kidnap billionaire, Femi Otedola – Gang leader confesses

The Nigeria Police Force has arrested 28-year-old Ikechukwu Daniel, the alleged mastermind of the abduction of a former Minister of Education, 70-year-old Senator Iyabo Anisulowo.

Daniel, who confessed that he planned to abduct oil magnate, Femi Otedola was arrested by  the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team.

Anisulowo, who represented the Ogun West Senatorial District between 2003 and 2007, was abducted in April 2016, with one of her security aides, and was rescued after spending 10 days in captivity.

During her rescue the police arrested two suspects, and upon interrogation the IRT got information which revealed Daniel as the leader of the gang.

Daniel-the-kidnapper
Ikechukwu Daniel

According to the suspect, his gang alongside a insider who worked with Otedola planned to kidnap the billionaire at a function in Ibadan, Oyo State in November 2015, but called it off due to the presence of security operatives.

“The person told us that he was going to be in Ibadan and when we went there, we realised that there was heavy security presence around him. I told my gang members that we had to prepare well for the operation to be successful.

“I told them we needed to do a sacrifice and fortify ourselves spiritually before attempting to kidnap him.

“Then, we decided that we also needed army, DSS and police uniforms because without impersonation, there was no way we could get him.

“The man who brought the job was supposed to monitor his movements regularly. I already planned that if we abducted him successfully, it would have been my last job because I would have demanded N2bn and maybe we would have negotiated for N500m.

“It would have been impossible because the security there was heavy that day. We decided to take our time and prepare well for the operation,” he said.

But that would never be before the police captured Daniel, whose gang was said to have become a terror in the South-west.

Daniel was arrested when IRT operatives picked up one Mohammed Babuga during the week. Babuga was said to have revealed the location of Daniel’s hideout in Festac, Lagos.

At the time of Babuga’s arrest he was negotiating the N4m ransom of another victim his gang was holding.

According to an IRT source Daniel, a native of Imo State, grew up in Kaduna and is adept at ICT.

Daniel who was arrested in 2012 for hijacking a petrol tanker joined the kidnapping gang in 2014.

He said, “I was arrested in 2012 for hijacking a petroleum tanker truck on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. I speak Hausa fluently. While I was in prison, I realised that inmates were still arranging criminal jobs from the prison.”

He said, “Mohammed Babuga had been discharged from prison ahead of me. When I first started, all I was doing was negotiating ransom anytime we kidnapped anybody.

“When we kidnapped the woman (Senator Anisulowo), I was the one who ensured that the woman was not killed because her family refused to pay ransom for her release.

“The first person we kidnapped was a man whose name I cannot remember. We kept him in a forest in Ilorin, Kwara State and got N5m as ransom.

“We got N15m in our second job and I got N2m as my share. I used it to buy my first car.”

Daniel narrated how he saved the life on Senator Anisulowo, by stopping other members of the gang from killing her when her family could not come up with ransom.

He said, “They told me that they were expecting to get nothing less than N50m. But after the family of the senator refused to pay the money and police were conducting raids all over the place, they decided to eliminate the woman.

“Police helicopter was hovering all over the place. My gang members then called me and said they wanted to kill the woman.

“I begged them for two days because they respect and listen to me. Luckily for the woman, she was released and they all ran away. The Fulani boys would have hacked her to death.”

The accused said he had evaded arrest by accessing the websites of the Department of State Services and the Police.

“Through that, I was able to understand their methods. Before I was arrested, I already knew the police was looking for me. But I thought I would continue to escape them because I understood how they worked,” he said.

32-year-old Babuga, a native of Kebbi State, said he used to be an armed robber until he was arrested in 2011 during an operation along Kaduna Road in Kwara State.

“It was my third robbery operation at the time some vigilantes in Ilorin arrested us and handed us over to the police.

“We were charged to court and I was remanded in prison. When I left prison, I joined a kidnap gang.”

Comments (3)

  1. This time, none of you is coming out.

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