The police in Ogun State have foiled the attempt of a 44 -
year -old bricklayer, Mukaila Alatunse, to kidnap his neighbour, Precious
Ogundiran, a student.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Ogundiran lives with her parents at
Lemode , in the Ijoko area of the state and is the only child of the family.
Alatunse was said to have discussed his plan to abduct
Ogundiran with a vigilante in the neighbourhood, telling him that they could
get as much as N 5m ransom from her parents.
It was gathered that the vigilante played along with the
father of seven, and later divulged the plan to Ogundiran's father, a lecturer
at the National Open University of Nigeria on Victoria Island, Lagos State.
The father was said to have reported the case to the police
at the Agbado division, leading to the arrest of the suspect on Monday.
A source told our correspondent that a team of detectives,
led by the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Sunday Ominijo, laid in ambush at a
hotel in Agbado, where Alatunse and the vigilante had agreed to meet.
The source said, “The police team asked the vigilante to
call the suspect on the telephone, and tell him that the lady had been
kidnapped. He agreed to come down to the hotel so they could contact the father
for a ransom. The father is a senior lecturer at NOUN.
“While he was with the vigilante at the hotel, the team
hanged around. The vigilante told him that the victim had been kept somewhere
and that they should discuss about the ransom.
“He said they would request N5m from the lecturer and that
he would take 60 per cent of the money while the vigilante would get 40 per
cent. The operatives swooped on him in the process. He has confessed to the
crime. ”
In a chat with PUNCH Metro, the native of Ikire , Osun State,
owned up to the botched kidnapping, saying he took to the crime after hearing
the news of how the notorious kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans,
made millions of dollars from kidnapping.
He said he got Ogundiran's phone number and some other
details from a shop owner in the area, adding that the trader was not aware of
his plan .
He said, “I am also a commercial motorcycle rider and the
vigilante rode on my motorcycle on June 16 in the evening.
We were discussing how kidnapping had become a way of making
quick money. I explained to him how Evans
Made a lot of money from kidnapping and suggested we should
also try our luck.
“ I told him that I knew a lecturer, who had one child, and
that we would make millions of naira from the man if we kidnapped his daughter.
He said he was also interested and we exchanged contacts. He asked me to
provide him with information about the girl, especially her phone number, while
he promised to look for more persons to facilitate the kidnapping.
“It was on Monday that he called me on the telephone that
the girl had been kidnapped and that I should come to a hotel in Agbado to
discuss the ransom. We were in the hotel when the police arrested us . On
getting to the station, I realized that it was a set - up .”
Alatunse said things had been difficult for him and his
family in the last three months and that he wanted to use the ransom to assuage
his suffering.
“I have seven children with two wives. One of my wives died
recently and I don’t have money to take care of the children. This is the first
time I would attempt kidnapping. I am appealing for mercy, ” he added.
The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Abimbola
Oyeyemi, said further investigations on the case would be carried out at the
command headquarters in Abeokuta.
He said, “The Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Illiyasu, has
directed that the case should be transferred to the anti-kidnapping section of
the command for discreet investigations.”
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