Chime & Nwodo
'Et tu Brute? (You too Brutus?)' That was the cry
of horror and shock on the lips of Julius Caesar, the Roman Emperor,
after his bosom friend, Brutus, had delivered the last of the sword
blows by the conspirators who killed him in the Senate centuries ago.
Brutus' action was seen as the height of treachery and villainy, for if
Caesar had expected anyone to save him from the evil plot, it was this
'friend.'
Busayo Oyebanji and Babatunde Oluwasanmi would seem
the 21st Century incarnations of Judas and Brutus. Both men are in the
net of the Oyo State Police Command for allegedly leading a five-man
kidnap gang to abduct and traumatize the wife, two children and a sales
girl of their cousin, in whose house they had wined and dined, for a
N100 million ransom
In fact, Iyanuolapo, one of the kids, had
been the little bride at Oyebanji's wedding at which her dad stood as
the groom's father last year.
Both Oyebanji and Oluwasanmi who
hail from Ilara Ijesa in Osun State had also enjoyed the Adenijis'
generosity and assistance over the years and were always welcome guests
at the family house at Elebu Oluyole Extension area of Ibadan.
Indeed,
according to the victim, Mrs. Bisola Adeniji, her husband, a quantity
surveyor who works at Port Harcourt in Rivers State, gave Oyebanji N20,
000 to settle hospital bills when the former's wife delivered a baby
recently.
But, greed and envy left the duo unsatisfied with what
Adeniji, who they call 'brother' and consider well-to-do, was able to
do for them. So, together they plotted with one Tope Edward Ogunsuyi and
recruited two more persons – one Raymond and another whose name was not
given, for the dastardly act.
Having perfected the deal,
Oyebanji and Oluwasanmi retreated to the background. On Monday, November
15, the eve of Ed-El-Kabir festival, their henchmen struck. The
operation was led by Ogunsuyi in company with Raymond and the other
unidentified suspect now said to be on the run. The threesome were said
to have scaled the fence of the house and gained entry into the main
apartment by perforating the ceiling where they hid themselves.
An
oblivious Mrs. Adeniji, returning from work with her two kids-
Iyanuolapo (4), Iyinoluwa(1) and her sales girl, Tayo Salami, had
entered the house at about 7.30 pm and was about locking the door from
inside on the fateful day when the hoodlums descended on her and the
other victims.
She narrated her ordeal: 'I was trying to lock the
door back when they pushed me back and on the floor. They tied our
hands and began searching everywhere. They took my handsets, trinkets,
money, my children's dresses and shoes. They packed everything. All this
while they tied our hands. They then asked me, where is the N100
million? They threatened that they would kill us if I didn't give them.
'It
was then I feared that they would kill us, because we didn't have such
amount of money. Even if you cost all what we have, we are not worth up
to that.'
The hoodlums subsequently blindfolded their victims,
took them in Mrs. Adeniji's vehicle, a Land Rover registered as Lagos
KP564EKY and drove them to their hideout in Akobo Oju Irin, a suburb of
Ibadan.
'Actually, I didn't know it was Ibadan, because they
kept driving round and round and I thought we've been driven outside Oyo
State. It was when the police came to rescue us that I recognized the
location of the house we were kept,' Mrs. Adeniji reported.
She
and her kids and sales assistant were in captivity for three days,
during which they were fed with fast food bought from a fast food
outlet.
Meanwhile, the kidnappers had phoned her husband, asking him to pay N100 million, if he hoped to see the hostages alive.
They
also seized the opportunity to visit Mr. Adeniji's ATM account where
they cashed several amount, totalling N380, 000. They had obtained the
ATM card and pin number from her under duress, threatening to kill her
if she refused.
By this time, however, the police, who had been
alerted on the kidnap by Mr. Adeniji and neighbours, had deployed
detectives, who, with the aid of a tracking device in it, were able to
track the Land Rover where it was concealed at Plot 11, Road L, Olubadan
Estate, Alakia in the metropolis.
One Mr. Adeleke Adebayo and
his wife who lived in the house were arrested. When interrogated, they
confessed that Ogunsuyi, a friend, who coordinated the kidnap brought
the vehicle there for safe-keeping.
Adebayo consequently led investigators to the principal suspect's house, resulting in other accomplices' arrests.
A
police team later stormed the kidnappers' hideout at Akobo Oju Irin,
where they rescued the hostages at about midnight on Wednesday, November
17.
Recalling how they regained their freedom, Mrs. Adeniji said
she was initially afraid when the policemen entered the premises and
started calling her name to inquire if she was there.
'We didn't
know it was the police. They (kidnappers) had warned us not to answer,
saying the callers could be the human parts dealers they had wanted to
sell us to. They said since my husband had agreed to pay them the money,
they were not interested in selling us to them again. But, when the
police kept calling: 'Mummy Iyanu, are you there, my daughter just
replied, shouting, ' yes, we're here!''
The three suspects keeping watch over the hostages then climbed to hide in the ceiling.
'It
took about two hours for us to get them down, because we didn't want to
use firearms so as to get them and others alive,' said the Oyo State
Police Commissioner, Baba Adisa Bolanta, who paraded the suspects at the
State Command Eleyele, Ibadan.
Speaking with Daily Sun,
Oyebanji, who claimed to be an Accounting graduate of the Polytechnic
Ibadan now into rental business, confessed that he and his cousin,
Oluwasanmi contracted Ogunsuyi, a fashion designer for the crime to get
some money out of Adeniji.
He admitted that Adeniji had been of great assistance to him, regretting that he did not know what pushed him into the idea.
Oluwasanmi, who spoke in similar vein, said he was drafted in to the evil scheme by Oyebanji and his friend Ogunsuyi.
Mrs. Adeniji said she was both shocked and disappointed when she discovered that her husband's kinsmen were behind the ordeal.
According to her, Oyebanji even came to her shop the morning of the fateful day she was abducted.
'It
shows some people are not to be trusted. This was a man my husband gave
N20,000 to settle hospital bills when his wife was delivered through
surgery. This apart, there have been several helps my husband did to
him,' she added.
Bolanta said the arrest of the suspects should
be a warning signal to prospective criminals to dump the idea, as the
risk of being caught was high.
He said the suspects would be
charged for both kidnapping and robbery, due to the forceful
dispossession of Mrs. Adeniji's money and valuables by the gang.
The
police chief also vowed to recover the stolen items including another
N215,000 cash, cheque books, jewelry, dressed and shoes stolen from the
victim's house and prosecute their criminal receivers along with the
suspects.
PIX1 SHOWS THE ARMED ROBBERS SPECIALIZING IN BURGLING CHURCHES
PIX 2 SHOWS THE KIDNAPPED WOMAN MRS. BUSOLA ADENIJI
PIX3 SHOWS ANOTHER SUSPECT WITH THE STOLEN MOTORCYCLE
PIX4 SHOWS ANOTHER SUSPECTS WITH THEIR STOLEN CAR
PIX5 SHOWS ANOTHER SUSPECTS WITH THE STOLEN JEEP
PHOTO BY DADA OSASONA IBADAN
No comments:
Post a Comment