The State Security Service, Lagos State
Command, has arrested a 48-year-old man,
Samson Adebayo, for allegedly arranging the
kidnap of his nine-year-old son, Emmanuel,
and demanding a ransom of N350, 000.
According to the SSS, Adebayo had solicited
the help of his girlfriend, Kehinde Alonge, to
kidnap Emmanuel from his residence at 2,
Solomon Street, Ilu-Nla, Aradagun, Badagry.
The director, SSS, Lagos State, Mr. Ben Achu-
Olayi, said Adebayo reported the incident to
security agents, pretending to be distraught.
He said, “On October 7, 2013, the command
received a report from Adebayo Samson, who
complained that his son was kidnapped on
October 3.
“Consequently, the command swung into
action with the aim of rescuing the victim and
arresting the culprits. Preliminary
investigations confirmed the kidnapping by
Alonge, who had demanded a N350, 000
ransom.
“She demanded that the ransom be paid into a
United Bank of Africa account 2050908899,
belonging to one Taiwo Faloye. Unknown to
the suspects, we had set up a flag on the
account with the bank’s cooperation and were
alerted when N230, 000 was remitted.”
He said Alonge was arrested when she went to
withdraw the money from a UBA branch at
Ilesha, Osun State, adding that during
interrogation, Alonge, a hairdresser, fingered
the victim’s father.
He said, “Following Alonge’s confession,
Adebayo was arrested. He confessed that he
planned his son’s kidnap in order to extort
money from some of his church members and
sympathisers.”
Achu-Olayi warned parents to avoid
endangering the lives of their children for the
sake of money.
He said, “We have noticed that crimes of this
nature are usually committed by parents or
close relations and we are warning them that
we will not tolerate such acts.”
The suspects, however, traded blame over the
incident when our correspondent spoke with
them.
Adebayo accused Alonge of coming up with
the plan in order to raise N200, 000 for a
beauty salon. Alonge however denied this.
She said, “I was in Ilesha when he (Adebayo)
called me to come to Lagos that some people
owed him money. He said the only way to
collect the money from them was for me to
come and take his son away, while he
pretends that he had been kidnapped.
“I came to Lagos on October 4, 2013. I
intended going to the school to pick the boy
but Adebayo advised that I pick him from the
house. Since the children knew me, I told the
boy to follow me to get something outside,
only to enter the next available vehicle to
Ilesha, Osun State.
“His father even gave me N3,000 for
transport. When we got to Ilesha, he sent
another N3, 750 worth of recharge cards for
his feeding. He even called his son on the
telephone on daily basis.
“He was the one that asked me to demand
N350, 000 but at the end of the bargain, he
said I should accept N200,000. Since I had no
bank account, I asked one of my relatives to
give me his account details. But we were
arrested at the point of withdrawal.”
Adebayo said, “I agreed to the plan because I
was broke. I have been a vulcaniser for 20
years and I am poor. I have two kids and my
wife is at a church, where she is being healed
of paralysis.
“Kehinde was the one that brought up the idea
that we should kidnap my son and I agreed
because I needed the money too. My share
would have been N100, 000 if we had
succeeded.
“I feel so ashamed of myself because what I
did was wrong. I hope the government
forgives me and let me go home. I won’t do it
again.”
No comments:
Post a Comment