Four months after the abduction of a former Minister of Education, 70-year-old Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, has arrested the alleged mastermind of the abduction, 28-year-old Ikechukwu Daniel, who made some startling confessions.
It will be recalled that Anisulowo, who represented the Ogun West Senatorial District between 2003 and 2007, was abducted in April 2016, with one of her security aides.The ex-minister was rescued after spending 10 days in captivity.The police at the time arrested two suspects, through whom the IRT got information which unmasked Daniel as the leader of the gang.If Daniel’s confession is anything to go by, one of Africa’s richest men, billionaire, Femi Otedola, would have fallen victim of the kidnappers.
According to the suspect, he and his gang planned to kidnap Otedola at a function in Ibadan, Oyo State in November 2015, but called off their attempt due to the presence of security operatives.“It would have been impossible because the security there was heavy that day. We decided to take our time and prepare well for the operation,” he said.
According to him, someone working with Otedola brought them the job.“The person told us that he was going to be in Ibadan and when we went there, we realised that there was heavy security presence around him. I told my gang members that we had to prepare well for the operation to be successful.“I told them we needed to do a sacrifice and fortify ourselves spiritually before attempting to kidnap him.
Then, we decided that we also needed army, DSS and police uniforms because without impersonation, there was no way we could get him.“The man who brought the job was supposed to monitor his movements regularly. I already planned that if we abducted him successfully, it would have been my last job because I would have demanded N2bn and maybe we would have negotiated for N500m.”But that would never be before the police captured Daniel, whose gang was said to have become a terror in the South West
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