Four
months after the abduction of a former Minister of Education, 70-year-old
Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence
Response Team, has arrested the alleged mastermind of the abduction,
28-year-old Ikechukwu Daniel, who made some startling confessions.
It
will be recalled that Anisulowo, who represented the Ogun West Senatorial
District between 2003 and 2007, was abducted in April 2016, with one of her
security aides.
The
ex-minister was rescued after spending 10 days in captivity.
The
police at the time arrested two suspects, through whom the IRT got information
which unmasked Daniel as the leader of the gang.
If
Daniel’s confession is anything to go by, one of Africa’s richest men,
billionaire, Femi Otedola, would have fallen victim of the kidnappers.
According
to the suspect, he and his gang planned to kidnap Otedola at a function in
Ibadan, Oyo State in November 2015, but called off their attempt due to the
presence of security operatives.
“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.
According
to him, someone working with Otedola brought them the job.
“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.”
But
that would never be before the police captured Daniel, whose gang was said to
have become a terror in the South West.
It was learnt that Daniel’s fate
was sealed when IRT operatives arrested one Mohammed Babuga during the week.
Babuga was said to have revealed the location of Daniel’s hideout in Festac,
Lagos.
By
the time he was arrested, he was negotiating the N4m ransom of another victim
his gang was holding.
A
source at the IRT revealed that Daniel, a native of Imo State, grew up in
Kaduna and is adept at ICT. He reportedly confessed to teaching Fulani
kidnappers how to evade arrest using his ICT skills.
Daniel
said his journey into the world of kidnapping started in 2014 after he was
released from the Agodi Prison, Ibadan, Oyo State.
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.”
Daniel
said after he was discharged from the Agodi Prison for want of evidence against
him, Babuga who was his cellmate, told him the way to make money was for him to
join a kidnapping gang.
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.”
In
details, he narrated what took place during the time, Senator Anisulowo was
being held by the gang. Daniel said his members initially did not carry him
along in the job.
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.”
Daniel
said he had been ahead of security operatives for so long because he familiarised
himself with the modus operandi of the Department of State Services and police
in tackling kidnapping.
The
suspect claimed that to get information, he contracted one of his friends, who
is a hacker, to gain access into DSS and police websites.
“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.
On
his part, 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.”
Source: The
Punch
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Society