Police nab kidnap gang with female member in Lagos

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Men of the Nigeria Police in Lagos have arrested a gang of eight, including a woman, suspected to have killed a businessman, Mr. Odidi Nweze, in Lagos recently.

The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko, said the suspects’ modus operandi was to drug their victims and take them to a location in FESTAC, Lagos.

He said, “In the cases of kidnapping that had been recorded of recent, victims were usually drugged and taken to FESTAC. Now, we have smashed this particular syndicate. Its ring leader, Kelvin Emenike, was the first to be arrested. Though he lives in Port Harcourt, he was lured to Lagos by the police under the guise of a business proposal.

“It was Emenike who led the police to arrest the seven other gang members, including a woman. There is a previous case of suspected murder of a clearing agent linked to this group.”

He said the suspects who used an uncompleted building located somewhere in Okota, Lagos as their hideout were in the habit of trailing their victims to an obscure place, abduct and blindfold them before taking them to their hideout in Okota.

Whenever the victims’ families pay ransom, Manko said, it was the woman that usually collects and shares it among members of the gang.

Emenike, who confessed to the crime, said the gang killed the businessman because he attempted to snatch a gun from one of them.

He said, “Although the parents later paid N1.2m out of the money we demanded, we killed him even before they paid the money.

“When he was kidnapped at Satellite Town, as we were going to Okota, he attempted to disarm one of us. So, I grabbed the gun and fired him point blank. He later bled to death.”

When asked how he picked his targets, Emenike said they usually go on motorcycles and trail people in flashy cars, adding that they would then attack the victims and demand ransom from their families.

Emenike said, “There was one time that we kidnapped two people in a jeep but the victims told us that the vehicle wasn’t theirs and we later let them go. Most times, we receive between N1m and N5m as ransom depending on how the family negotiates.”