by Chinwe Okafor

A serving councillor of Ward 14, Odogbolu Local area of Ogun State, Agboola Lateef, and four others have been arrested for kidnapping by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ogun State Police Command.

Three members of the kidnapping syndicate were said to be at large.

The councillor, who said he regretted being arrested with the kidnappers, denied being part of the syndicate. He claimed it was his younger brother, who is currently at large that drew him into the mess.

He said, “My brother called that his car had problem around Itoikin-Sagamu, and he asked that I should release my car for him. I later released my car, but I never knew he was into kidnapping business. I feel bad being paraded with the kidnappers.”

One of the suspects, Sunkanmi Dacosta who said he ran errands buying food for their victims, said the syndicate had collected various ransoms from their victims relations.

He said, “We had collected N900,000. We had collected N1.3m and N2m from our victims’ relations.”

Another, Mukaila Olatunji, who claimed to be a herbalist owns the houses that served as the dens where the victims were kept.

“We usually bring the victims at night. And I am the owner of one the guns recovered from us. I used it for hunting while I was young,” he said.

According to Ntomchukwu, the den contained a shrine where the suspects hypnotise their victims and fleeced their family members.

“They have had five people as their victims so far. Currently we are profiling them, to know the total amount they had collected from their victims.”

Ada Igboanugo