University Final Year Student, 5 Others Arrested For Kidnapping In Ogun

The Ogun State Vigilance Service, Sunday,  said it had arrested six suspected kidnappers including  a final year student  of Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ago-Iwoye,  (name withheld) who demanded a sum of N25million ransom from their victim’s family.

Speaking to newsmen in Abeokuta, the Public Relations Officer of the Service, Soji Ganzallo said that the suspects had on Thursday trailed one Aremu Peters from his office located at number 86 Ibadan road,Ijebu-Ode, at about 7.00p.m. and subsequently kidnapped him.

According to Ganzallo, the command on receiving the information moved in swiftly and was able to locate their hideout, rescued the victim and arrested the suspects.

Narrating his ordeals in the hands of the kidnappers, Peters said he got his freedom 48 hours after he was abducted, saying the kidnappers pointed a gun at him, collected his car key and immediately put him inside the car booth.

They later abandoned the car at Iwesi quarters, Ijebu-Ode, at around 8.00pm.

“I was blindfolded and on arrival at their hide-out, I was tortured and asked to put a call through to my family. The gang leader demanded for N25million ransom.

They called my family on my phone and ordered them to pay N25million ransom.

They tied my hands. But after much pleas, they reduced the ransom to N5million. At that stage, I asked my family to sell my house and other valuables to save my life before luck ran against them when the vigilance service burst the hideout and rescued me,” the victim said.

Confessing to their crime, the gang leader said they kept their victim in the car booth before they took him to the hideout located at Ajobo village, in Odeda Local Government Area, along Abeokuta-Ibadan road.

He added that they fed their victim with bread, soft drink and sachet water within 48 hours of the victim’s captivity.

Ganzallo told newsmen that findings revealed that the victim’s car was abandoned by the gang in Ibadan. He said the suspects would be handed over to the police. [VN]

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Policeman Arrested For Nkiru Sylvanus’ Kidnap

A crack team of State Security Service operatives and soldiers have arrested the alleged leader of the kidnap gang that abducted Nollywood actress, Nkiru Sylvanus.

A Government House source and close aide of Governor Rochas Okorocha, who craved anonymity disclosed the development.

According to the Governor’s aide, “the suspect, who was identified as Matthew Ofurum, is a native of Assa community in Ohaji/Egbema local government area of the state,” Vanguard reports.

The source said further that the suspect is a serving member of Mobile Police Force, Base 19, Port Harcourt, Rivers State,

About N3.5 million, suspected to be part of the N8 million ransom paid by the kidnapped lady’s immediate family, it was learnt was recovered from Ofurum.

According to the source, “the suspect was shot, wounded and demobilized before being arrested”.

“Matthew Ofurum leads the Imo, Rivers and Abia gangs. He recruits, trains and supplies ammunitions to gangs, using his official cover,” the source added.

Three suspects had earlier been arrested by the police in connection with the kidnap of Nkiru Sylvanus. The actress who serves in Governor Rochas Okorocha’s cabinet as Special Assistant on Public Affairs in Imo State was released by her abductors after her family paid a ransom of N8m.

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Four kidnapped S. Korean expatriates freed

Four South Korean workers who were kidnapped earlier this week in Bayelsa state have been released unharmed, a foreign ministry spokesman said Saturday.

The four workers from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, were abducted by armed men Monday while working at a construction site in the state of Bayelsa.

They were freed unharmed late Friday, the South Korean foreign ministry spokesman said.

Two Nigerian co-workers were kidnapped alongside the South Koreans, with one apparently released soon after the incident, according to Hyundai. There was no information on whether the other Nigerian was also set free Friday.

It is not known if a ransom was paid.

Gangs looking for ransom money have frequently abducted expatriates working in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

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Police rescue four abducted female corps members in Rivers

FOUR female corps members abducted at the Iriebe corps members’ lodge in Oyibo Local Council of Rivers State were Sunday rescued by the police.

TG learnt that a gang of about seven armed bandits gained entrance into the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) transit camp at Iriebe through the fallen part of the fence. They   entered the corps members’ rooms through the doors that had no burglary proofs, stole their phones, laptops and cash.

It was further learnt that the hoodlums abducted four of the female corps members during the operation.

While confirming the incident, the Spokesman of the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ben Ugwuegbulem, said the Oyigbo Police Division swiftly mobilised the team of police officers to the scene immediately they received the information.

He said that the hoodlums abandoned the corps members as the police chased them.

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N30m ransom: Police arrest wife of abducted ruler in Bayelsa

Investigation into the abduction of a traditional ruler at Okordia, in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, King Richard Seiba, took another dimension at the weekend, as police authorities arrested the wife of the traditional ruler, Evelyn, for engaging in telephone conversations with the kidnappers of his husband.

Nigerian Tribune was authoritatively informed that the detectives from the Bayelsa State police command swooped on the wife on Saturday, at her residence, over alleged discussions and negotiation with the abductors of her husband on the phone.

The development, which further heightened the tension at Ikarama community, where Chief Seiba was seized by gunmen about two Saturdays ago, shocked the villagers and family members of the ruler.

Credible sources close to the Seiba’s family disclosed to the the Nigerian Tribune that the security agents, who came to apprehend the wife of the abducted ruler, said she was only being invited to assist the police in tracking the suspected kidnappers, but was subsequently detained for talking to the hoodlums in telephone conversations for more than twice last week.

Pleas made by the ruler’s wife to convince the police that the suspected abductors might have got her phone number from his kidnapped husband were ignored.

Checks by the Nigerian Tribune indicated that the kidnappers had called the first son of the traditional ruler, Glory Seiba, on his mobile phone a few days ago, instructing him to meet them in a bush at Kaiama, in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of the state to give them an unspecified sum.

It was gathered that Glory went to the location with some soldiers, but apparently sensing danger, the kidnappers were said to have relocated to another undisclosed location with a view to evade arrest by the soldiers.

 When contacted on Sunday, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, DSP Fidelis Odunna, confirmed the invitation of the king’s wife  by the police, saying she was not under interrogation, but “she is assisting the police in their investigations.”

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ESUT Vice Chancellor Kidnapped-Police escort shot

Armed gunmen today kidnapped Prof Cyprian Onyeji the vice chancellor of the Enugu State University (ESUT).Sources disclosed that the kidnappers numbering about 10 also shot the police escort.

Reliable sources disclosed that the incident happened this morning when the Vice Chancellor was on his way to his office at ESUT campus. No information on whether the police escort engaged in gun duel with the abductors before he was shot and taken away with the abducted VC,

No demand for ransome yet.Police sources disclosed that investigation into the matter have already started.

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BREAKING NEWS: Kidnapped German killed in JTF raid - Source

News reaching Todaysgist (TG) confirms that the German, Raufach Edgar, who was kidnapped in Kano on January 26 this year was killed by his captors this morning before he could be rescued by men of the JTF.

The JTF had conducted a raid at Danbare area opposite the new campus of Bayero University Kano this morning after tracing the kidnapped German to the hideout where he was being held but the captors killed him before the JTF could apprehend them.

The raid is still ongoing and sporadic shootings are still being heard by residents who are all trapped within their homes and unable to go to work. A military helicopter is also still hovering overhead, providing aerial support to the forces on the ground.

The JTF is to brief the press soon on the incident.

Raufach Edgar was until his kidnap working with Dantata and Sawoe construction company. He was abducted  by two gun men around 8 am on January 26 along the Zaria - Kano expressway were his company is located.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb connection

On March 27, a Mauritanian and four other men were arrested in Kano over the January kidnapping. Four of the suspects were arrested in a raid on a supermarket owned by the Mauritanian, while the fifth was held in a separate raid.

“Guns and a laptop were recovered in the store and the documents found in the computer, including an AQIM operation manual, showed that the suspects are linked to AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) and were involved in the kidnap of the German engineer in January,” one of the sources said in describing the supermarket raid.

AQIM has also disclosed through a private news agency in Mauritania a week before the raid that it was holding the German and that it wanted to swap him for a jailed Muslim woman.

A video obtained by the agency, ANI, showed Raupach, his hands tied behind his back, surrounded by masked gunmen. In the video he called on his "parents, friends and German public opinion" to convince Berlin to "bring an end to the torture of our Muslim sister", adding that only her liberation will save his life.

AQIM warned that any attempt to rescue Raupach will lead to his death, as happened in the case of Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara and British colleague Chris McManus, killed earlier this month during a failed rescue bid by Nigerian forces.

A source, speaking of the Mauritanian, said “he turned the upper floor of his store into a hideout where he housed his three Nigerian accomplices.”

Germany responds

A release said to be authorised by the German Embassy in Abuja and published as an advert in Daily Trust on May 11, 2012 claimed the German woman in question, had been released.

The woman, Filiz Gelowicz, who had converted to Islam and now bears the name Uma Saifullah Al-Ansariya, was released two weeks ago, according to the advert.

The publication announcing the release of the jailed German woman said, “100 days missing. Your sister Uma Saifullah Al-Ansariya (Filiz Gelowicz) is free since two weeks. When do you release our brother Edgar?? His friends are waiting for him…”

Edgar’s photo was placed by the side of the text of the advert, which also contained a message in Arabic apparently meant to inform the kidnappers of the release of Gelowicz.

Source:DailyTrust

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