Paraded kidnappers admit collecting N15m to free Lagos monarch

Two of the suspected kidnappers of Goriola Oseni, the traditional ruler (Oba) of Iba Town, in Ojo area of Lagos, who were paraded by the security agencies at the State House, Ikeja, on Sunday, have confessed they collected N15.1 million to free the monarch.
Gunmen who shot sporadically abducted Oseni in his palace on July 16, resulting in the death of three persons while his wife who was also shot survived. The 73-year-old monarch was eventually whisked away by his kidnappers who escaped in a waiting boat through the creeks.
Oba Oseni, who is now back in his palace, while lamenting his ordeal to journalists on Sunday, said he paddled himself in a canoe through the creeks to get home after his abductors released him around 7:45pm on Saturday, August 6, 2016. He admitted his family paid a ransom but he could not tell how much. He noted, however, that he was not rough handled by his kidnappers during the three weeks spent in captivity.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has said that the arrested kidnappers would face prosecution. Ambode in a statement read by Adeniji Kazeem, the attorney general and commissioner for justice, at a news conference on Sunday, said aside kidnapping being a crime, abduction of an Oba, in the Yoruba tradition, was a sacrilege and attracted stringent punishment.
“Permit me to state that the kidnap of an Oba in Yoruba land is a sacrilege and a complete discretion of the cultural values of the Yoruba people that must not go unpunished.” The arrest of the suspects was a warning to criminals that the government values and cherishes the Yoruba tradition and will leave no stone unturned to ensure that it is protected, the governor said.
One of the nine-man kidnap gang, who gave his name as Isaiah Dodomu, an indigene of Ondo State, paraded along with another suspect identified as Toba Forejo from the Ijaw ethnic group in Ondo State, said the monarch was kept for 21 days in the Ijagemo creek, Igando near Ikotun, where they had been engaging in pipeline vandalism.
They gave other gang members still at large to be: Igodogodo, Mighty, Sam (the one who showed the kidnappers the route), Folly, and three others.
According to Toba, “I was arrested at Iyana-School Bus stop by the security operatives.”
Explaining their profession before embarking on kidnapping, Isaiah said: “I was previously involved in pipeline vandalism. But since President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in, it had not been business as usual. Understanding the impact of the administration on our vandalism business our leaders directed that we should start kidnapping and we started with the minor kidnapping.”
Isaiah, who is married with children, narrated further, “We went to the community to kidnap the monarch. Few days after, we demanded for N500 million. Later our leaders demanded for N40 million. Before our leaders left, they received N12 million ransoms from the monarch family. Of the money, I received N100,000. When we realised that the security operatives could apprehend us, I suggested that we collect whatever ransom the family could add to the existing fee and release him.
“So, the family brought N3.1 million again. The money was kept at Igbeyin Adun waterside, Barrack axis. After receiving the ransom, I was also given N100,000.