Naija News.
A trader and an illegal money transfer agent believed to have links with the gang of kidnappers who abducted the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, LCDA, Chairman, Kehinde Bamigbetan, as well as Federal High Court Judge, have been arrested by operatives of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja, Lagos.
Crime Guard gathered that the trader, Adesuyi Oluwaseyi, received and disposed all valuable items stolen from kidnap victims, while the money transfer agent, Emeka Nwajiobi, helped the gang in laundering their kidnap proceeds abroad.
Seven members of the gang were reportedly killed, penultimate Monday, when they engaged SARS operatives in a gun duel at their hideout in Idomila community, Agbara Ogun State, with two others arrested alive, while four AK 47 rifles, 28 AK 47 magazines fully loaded, over 1,000 rounds of AK-47 live ammunition, army uniforms and two vehicles- a Honda CRV SUV with number plate ABC 106 AE and a Nissan Pathfinder SUV with number plate AGL 730 AZ were recovered from them.
Police sources intimated Crime Guard that Oluaseyi and Nwajiobi were arrested following information received from the two arrested suspects. According to a source; "The suspects informed us that their leader, Jonah Benjamin Osinachi, popularly known as China, who is now deceased, engaged the suspects to disposed the stolen items from their victims and launder their kidnap proceeds in Ghana where they live.
The sources further said that, Oluwaseyi, received vehicles, laptop, cell phones and jewelries, belonging to kidnap victims. In the case of the Ejigbo Council boss, Bamigbetan, where the sum of $ 100,000, was paid as ransom, China, who was the gang's leader, got $ 50,000 as his own share of the ransom and transferred $40,000 to Ghana through the illegal money transfer firm, Nwajiobi operated in Trade Fair Complex, Lagos", the source stated.
Meanwhile, when Crime Guard spoke with the suspects at the State Command Headquarters, Oluwaseyi said that he sold Bamigbetan's laptop for N50,000, at the Alaba International Market. According to Oluwaseyi, in April 2013, China in his usual manner called me and said I should come to his house at Agbara; that he had some goods for me to buy. When I got there, I saw a man that was blindfolded with a black cloth and China showed me one HP laptop and asked how much I could pay for it. I told him I would pay N20,000 for the laptop and he became angry.
He pointed a gun at my face and said that the laptop belonged to the blindfolded man who he later identified as the council chairman of Ejigbo LCDA. The man wanted to speak with me, but China screamed at him to shut up his mouth and he instructed me to tell him in Yoruba language that he should cooperate with them or he would be killed, and I did as he instructed before leaving the house. I ended up buying the laptop for N30,000 and I sold it at Alaba International Market for N50,000."
I won't deny the fact that I knew China was into kidnapping and I was the one who bought almost all the laptops and phones he collected from his victims. I kept on dealing with him because he threatened to kill me if I stopped. He knew my house at Ishashi where I live with my parents and he said he would come after me whenever I stopped buying his goods. I am a student of Adeniran Ogusanya College of Education and I knew that he was a very dangerous man. My initial plan was to save some money and travel out of the country, where I know with that it would be difficult for him to get at me. I knew that what I was doing was wrong but I did it because I was scared."
But, Nwajiobi claimed he was not aware that his customers were into kidnapping, and the money transferred were proceeds from crime. The 45-year-old man said "I am a native of Anambra State and I reside at Itire area of Lagos State. My brother who resides in Ghana opened this money transfer firm and I joined him after I lost out of the former business I was into. I operate the Nigerian office and he paid me N12,000 weekly which I manage with my family. Our job is to help traders come into Nigeria to buy goods, safeguard their money from thieves and armed robbers. When they are coming to buy goods, especially spare parts from Ghana they will go to my brothers office in Ghana and give their money to him.
"My brother will then send me their details and later he will pay the money into a bank account. When the traders get to Nigeria, they will come to me with their identity I will go to the bank and withdraw their money for them. Majority of our customers were brought in by my brother and I don't know how much they paid him as commission. I don't know China and his friends but I know the boys they send to me. It was even my brother who gave them my phone number. I did not know that the money was from kidnap victims. If I had known I wouldn't have taken part in it," he lamented.
Why we couldn't apprehend them in Ghana
After Bamigbetan was released and the gang relocated to Ghana the team of SARS operatives and Interpol officials faced a major hitch, because the Ghanaian laws would not allow them access to the telephone records of China and other members of his gang who were considered law abiding residents of Ghana. The Interpol officials and their counterpart at SARS were subjected to grueling hours in court where they were made to prove before the court that that their targets were truly kidnappers in Nigeria.
"The operatives were made to show the court several newspaper reports where their targets were fingered as the culprits. It took about two weeks before the court granted their demands and while they approached the telecom operators with the court order their targets returned to Nigeria and kidnapped a Federal High Court Judge and collected N10 million as ransom," the source explained.
How the police made a breakthrough
Some time last month, the gang visited Nigeria and kidnapped a victim who was a little bit familiar with the area where she was detained. Relatives of the victim paid some ransom and when the victim was released, SARS operatives debriefed her and she gave them a description of what would turn out to be the kidnappers den.
According to sources, upon this discovery, the officer in charge of SARS, Abba Kyari, was said to have deployed an undercover operative to survey the area. The operative pretended to be an indigene and rented a shop where he sold food items opposite the house used by the kidnappers.
"The operative was selling rice and other food items and would pass for a native of that area, but always relayed information to our boss who did not want to burst the building because their boss was residing in Ghana then. On Saturday June 20, 2013, the operative spotted someone who matched the description of China and he alerted our boss who swiftly mobilized the entire team of SARS operatives and kept them on standby. By Sunday night, words came in that the kidnappers had gone out for operation and our boss briefed the team on standby before leading them to the scene.
"We were placed strategically around the area. Some of us hid ourselves in the bush; others rode motorbikes like indigenes in that area. While we were waiting for the kidnappers to return we intercepted messages on police walkie-talkie that some armed men had snatched a car in Festac Town. Immediately our boss promptly informed everyone on alert. After a short while the kidnappers showed up with their victim and we gave them some time to relax. We intended to apprehend the whole of them alive but when we moved in China opened fire on us as he tried to escape but unknown to them we had surrounded the entire building," the source narrated.
No comments:
Post a Comment