By; RAYMOND TEDUNJAYE, Lagos.
Operatives of Rapid Response Squad, RRS, of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested a middle aged man for attempting to kidnap a two year old boy
Identified as Suleiman Seidu, 33, the suspects was alleged to have attempted kidnapping the two year-old boy named Chimdi Udwu, in Owode area of Ogun State.
The Decoy Team of the RRS squad was said to have gone on the trail of the suspect, having been hinted about the kidnap attempt by one of the two persons who the prime suspect had contracted to connive with to perpetrate the crime.
Upon gathering further intelligence, a member of the RRS Decoy Team was said to have posed as a lady that the kidnapper sought to help give the child a good care.
RRS Source disclosed that for more than two weeks while the kidnapping took shape, the investigator, pretending as an accomplice, exchanged information with the prime suspect.
It was learnt that the suspect, told the accomplice that he has gotten a motorcycle that would be used in conveying the boy once kidnapped, assuring that the grand father of the boy would be able to afford a ransom of N10 million, being a landlord and dealer in electrical appliances.
Sources informed that when the Commissioner of Police, Lagos command Mr. Fatai Owoseni was informed of the jurisdictional challenge of arresting the kidnapped suspect in Ogun State, he ordered the Decoy team to proceed assuring them he would contact his colleague in Ogun, adding that there was no jurisdiction in crime.
The accomplice was said to have expressed shock on hearing that a N10 million ransom is to be demanded and informed a friend on Lagos, who contacted the police.
He continued: “I knew it was going to boomerang if I conceal the information and not inform the police.
“Then, I called one of my friends who resides in Lagos and explained the whole idea of kidnap attempt on an innocent boy by someone in my neighbourhood, and the person also solicited me to join him to commit the crime.
“It was this my friend that told me to come to Lagos to inform the RRS, which I eventually did the following day to report the case at its headquarters in Lagos”, the informant was quoted as saying.
The source added that the suspect had successfully kidnapped two persons in Kogi State, where he collected huge ransoms from their families.
Upon his arrival at the RRS Headquarters in Lagos, the suspect who confessed to the crime, said that he wanted to kidnap the young boy because his biological mother is seriously ill and looking for money by all means to pay her hospital bill.
In his confessional statement, he revealed, “I have been on the trail of that young boy and her parents for quite a while now. I conceived the idea to kidnap him when I was left with no option than to commit the crime because my mother is very ill at the moment.
“I wanted to demand for N10 Million ransom but if his parents cannot afford the whole at least I was expecting N3 Million at the end of the day.
“Although, I just relocated to that area and I am not that familiar with the nooks and crannies of that area very well.
“Then, I thought of contracting someone who knew the environment very well and would make the job easy for me”.
Interrogating him on how he would carry out the kidnapping, the Kogi State born suspect explained, “I had been watching the movements of his parents for about two weeks. I discovered that whenever he was taking the boy to school every day, when the man drives out.
“He would alight from the car to lock the gate because they don’t have a gate keeper in their house. Also he takes him to school between 7:00 a.m and 8:00 a.m.
“What I devised was to kidnap the boy whenever the driver alight from the car to close the gate, escape on a waiting bike.
“Although, I live in a room and parlour apartment, I had planned to keep him with me in my house to be demanding and threatening his parent to bring my expected ransom”.
The father of the child, Udwu, who had no inkling of the looming woe, thanked the Policemen for carrying out the intelligence report successfully which led to the arrest of the kidnap suspect.
Reacting to the incidence, the Police Public Relations Officer of Lagos State, Superintendent of Police, Dolapo Badmus, said that the suspect would be charged to court upon completion of the Police investigation.
The suspect has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Panti, for further investigation.
