It
has been established that the three abducted schoolgirls of Babington Macaulay
Junior Seminary (BMJS) were released after payment of N5.4million ransom.
This
disclosure was made by the mastermind of the kidnap, 38-year-old Felix Silva,
who was arrested and yesterday paraded by the Lagos State Police Command.
The
gang had initially demanded N100million for the three girls, but later reduced
the ransom to N20million and even later N5.6million.
Apparently,
they later settled for N5.4million and were waiting to collect a balance of
N200,000 before they were arrested by the Inspector General of Police Special
Intelligence Response Team (SIRT).
The
state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni the swung into action and had
carried the girls from the bridge at Ikorodu where the kidnappers had dumped
them six days later.
The
gang led by Silva and 37-year-old Emmanuel Arigidi, who has since been
arrested, had abducted three girls, Olusa Oluwatimilehin, Popo-Olaniyan Tofunmi
and Akinayo Deborah, on March 3, 2016.
Although
some of his gang members have been arrested months ago, Silva still remained
elusive until he was finally nabbed after he engineered the kinship of a
Chinese expatriate in Ajah.
In
his confessional statement, the suspect said they got the sum of N5.4m as
ransom for the release of the girls.
He
said, “They promised to pay N5.6m but eventually paid N5.4m. We were expecting
them to pay the balance of N200,000 but they didn’t. I got N300,000 as my own
share of the money
“The
first attempt we made. The girl we got escaped from us so we left. But we were
successful the second time. We bore a hole through one of the school fence. We
went back the same way we came.
“When
they did not see me, the police arrested my wife, my two kids, my father and
mother. I ran away when the heat became so hot.”
On
the arrest of the mastermind behind the kidnap of the three schoolgirls,
Owoseni said the suspect is the leader of an armed-robbery-cum-kidnapping
syndicate.
He
said the Edo State indigene headed the armed robbery and kidnapping operations
in Ikorodu, Epe and Ogun State and Ibafo axis until he was arrested last week.
He
said, “This man was also responsible for the kidnap of the rescued Chinese man
within the Ajah axis three weeks ago.
“I
can assure you that he will be arraigned before a court of Law. The command
will not rest on its oars; it will continue to utilise every strategy to fight
criminality in the state.”
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Society