By Wale Ishola
A suspected kidnapper on Thursday lost his life during a gun duel with policemen in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
During the shootout, the policemen also rescued two abducted victims abandoned by the kidnappers at their hideouts in the area.
It was gathered that the deceased kidnapper and his gang members, during an operation on March 26, abducted some persons in the community.
Following the operation, the suspects reportedly contacted the victims’ families and demanded N20 million ransom to release the abductees.
While negotiating with the suspects, it was learnt that the victims’ families informed the Lagos State Police Command and policemen were detailed to investigate the case and rescue the victims.
However, on the agreed day for the ransom payment, the kidnappers, upon seeing that policemen accompanied the families of the abducted victims to the agreed location, opened fire.
One of the rescued victims narrated how they fell into the hands of the kidnappers: “They (kidnappers) were six in number. We were arranging eggs in boxes to supply. They took me and the driver into the forest. There, they demanded for a ransom of N20 million, which was negotiated to N20 million.
“The following day, they blindfolded us and started using cutlass to inflict cuts on our bodies.
“All of a sudden, my boss called them that the money was ready. Two of them were assigned to go for the money but met with policemen.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, while reacting to the incident, said the policemen fired back at the hoodlums, adding that during the exchange of gunfire, the policemen shot one of the suspects dead and rescued two victims.
According to the PPRO, “they envisaged that the police might be involved, so they had already laid an ambush, but we also envisaged such a move and had planned to counter it. There was a gun duel, after which one of the kidnappers was injured. We took him to the hospital where he was confirmed dead. The ones who escaped dropped a firearm and four live cartridges.
“We were also able to recover three phones. Good enough, two of the phones belong to the kidnappers. We have commenced forensic analysis of the phones and we have very interesting lead we are working on.”
