A parent, Mrs Dorcas Ojo, whose three grandchildren were among the pupils abducted by gunmen in Ekiti State on January 29, has applauded the arrest of some of the suspects by the police in the state.
The police had on Friday evening paraded eight suspected kidnappers arrested in different forests in Ekiti and neighbouring states for their alleged involvement in the abduction of the five schoolchildren and their teachers, and the kidnapping of the Ekiti State All Progressives Congress State Chairman, Paul Omotoso, in 2023.
Speaking with Sunday PUNCH on Saturday, Ojo said, “We were informed that some of them have been arrested. God will lead the security agencies to arrest all of them involved in the kidnapping incident as well as all others in the state.
“The kidnappers operated in different locations in Ekiti State the day the schoolchildren and teachers were kidnapped. It is our expectation that all of them would be located by security agencies.
“Is it the traditional rulers who they killed and turned their children fatherless that we want to talk of? It is our prayers the criminals are all arrested because the torture, trauma, and punishment my grandchildren were subjected to by the kidnappers were indescribable.
“I hail the government and security agencies for what they have been doing on the matter. What I think is that whoever is arrested among them and confirmed a kidnapper should be killed.”
The police had while parading the eight suspects said that one other suspect was killed in duet with men of the security agency.
The Commissioner of Police, Adeniran Akinwale, who said that the suspects were picked in different locations even outside the state, said that the breakthrough was made possible through the effort of men of the Rapid Response Squad led by its Commander, Marcus Ogundola.
He listed the suspects, who were paraded in Ado Ekiti on Friday as Sumo Karamu, Abubakar Aliyu (aka Smallie), Saliu Ibrahim, Umaru Saliu, Mohammed Bashir, Yahaya Jubril, Usman Garba and Kenneth Ugwu.
Akinwale said that the arrests followed a credible tip-off on February 8 that a gang of armed men had invaded farmland at Eda-Oniyo Ekiti and were planning to kidnap some expatriates in Dairy Farmland, Ikun-Ekiti.
He disclosed that the phone used to demand ransom for the release of the Ekiti school pupils and the teachers was recovered from the suspects.
The CP said, “Further investigation led to the arrest of one Kenneth Ugwu in Ibadan, Oyo State, on February 14. The suspect, during interrogation, confessed to being a member of a kidnapping syndicate that kidnapped five pupils, three teachers, and a driver in Emure-Ekiti who was allegedly killed by the kidnappers.
“The suspect led a team of RRS operatives to the kidnappers’ hideout inside Agric Reserved Forest between Ise-Ekiti/Emure-Ekiti.
“On sighting the police, the armed hoodlums engaged the team in a gun duel.
“In the process, one of the gang members who was later identified as Ayuba was neutralised, one Abubakar Mohammed also known as Smallie was captured alive while other gang members escaped through the forest.”
