A dismissed soldier and a personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were among three suspects that have been arrested for terrorizing high profile persons in the South West and trying to kidnap oil mogul Femi Otedola.

The suspects identified as Ayobamide Adeyemi of the NSCDC and Ayodele Ibitayo, the dismissed soldier, and a rusticated student of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Ikechukwu Daniel, were arrested by the Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

The suspects admitted wanting to collect the sum of N1 billion as ransom if they had succeeded in seizing and holding Otedola.

The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Don Awunah, disclosed in a statement how the suspects who were also fingered in the kidnapping of a former Minister of State for Education, Senator Iyabo Anisulowo were arrested: “The arrest was achieved through coordinated intelligence gathering and deployment of technical investigative tools that spanned several weeks.

 The principal suspect, one Ikechukwu Daniel, a 28-year-old indigene of Imo State, who is the mastermind of the gang, was rusticated from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria due to his cult related activities in 2009/2010.”

He said Adeyemi Kayode, 29, was a personal assistant to the Commandant, NSCDC Oyo State Command, and took advantage of his office to obtain the GSM number and location of Otedola. 

“He hatched the plan on how to kidnap the business magnate,” he said, adding that the third suspect, Ayodele Temitayo, an indigene of Oyo State like Kayode, was  the marksman and armourer of the gang, and claimed to have been dismissed from the 213 Battalion Maiduguri of Nigeria Army as a private last year.

“All the suspects made confessional statements revealing that they had successfully carried out several high profile kidnappings,” he said.

 Ayodele Ibitayo explained in a press interview how the Otedola kidnap was prevented by the arrest of a member of the gang: “In March 2016,  Ayobami brought the Femi Otedola job.  I wasn’t fully in the plan since my job was just to abduct our target and hand him over to the rest of the gang, but Ike who was our master strategist  suggested that we should buy a Hilux van and also disguise as security operatives who wanted to arrest Otedola.  We then decided to kidnap a man in Moniya so that we would raise the money to fund the Otedola kidnapping. 

We monitored  Otedola’s movements  while he was in Ibadan  and we saw the size of security personnel around him.  We needed to buy a Hilux van and some uniform of security operatives.  But in June, Ike was arrested.”