Two suspects arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Mrs Folashade Odumosu, the wife of a former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, in the Arepo area of Ogun State, have confessed that they were sent by a yet-to-be-identified man.
PUNCH Metro learnt in an interrogation video of the suspects obtained on Sunday that the suspected kidnappers received a ransom of N20m.
Recall that Mrs Odumosu was abducted by four masked men who attacked her, pulled her out of her Lexus Jeep, and drove away with her at about 10 pm on January 16.
The Nigeria Police Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, had in a statement on Thursday announced the rescue of Mrs Odumosu stressing that two of the kidnappers were killed in the operation while others fled.
On Friday, Adejobi stated that two suspects, 27-year-old Smart Agbojule and 30-year-old Michael Keleke, who were among the fleeing members of the syndicate, were arrested by police operatives in Lagos.
While being paraded before newsmen, the suspects confessed that they were sent by a man whom they did not know.
They alleged that the said man contacted one of them who was killed during a gun duel with the police on the day Mrs Odumosu was rescued.
One of the suspects noted that they had received N20m ransom from the N40m they demanded from the family.
He added that each member of the syndicate got the sum of N4,250,000 from the ransom proceed.
He said in Pidgin (now translated), “I was arrested for kidnapping a woman at Arepo. We took her through the bush and kept her for one week and two days. We were sent by one man but I don’t know him. It is one of my brothers that you showed me earlier that knew him.
“We demanded N40m ransom but they paid N20m. I got N4,250,000 from the money and my brothers also got the same amount.”
The second suspect also corroborated what the first suspects had said adding that they hid Mrs Odumosu under a palm tree at the back of her house before transporting her to the creek.
“We took her through the back of her house. We hid her at the palm tree at the back of her house before we moved her to the creek,” he narrated.
Adejobi stated that a sum of N12,250,000 was recovered from the suspects during the rescue operation and the arrest of the two suspects.
