- Says I took okada to Magodo GRA to stop his escape
The Head of the Intelligence Response Team, Assistant Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari, has disclosed that he had to take a ride on a commercial motorcycle, popularly known as okada, to enable him move faster to the Magodo GRA Phase II residence of notorious kidnap kingpin, Chukwudi Onuamadike, aka Evans, to effect his arrest.
Kyari told our correspondent on the phone that to avoid any delay due to the usual chaotic traffic situation on Lagos roads, he had to quickly jump on a commercial motorcycle from his Ikeja GRA location to Magodo GRA Phase II to arrest Evans, who he had earlier been informed by his men already deployed in the area, was making frantic preparations to leave his mansion very soon.
He added that in the early hours of Sunday, “At about 1.30am, Evans and some of his gang members went out to a club around Ikeja and returned at 5.10am. So, we were very sure Sunday would be our day.So, I decided to go and cleanup myself and have a little rest before I returned to Magodo. I was still resting when my guys called that the target was set; that it appeared he wanted to go out. So, I had to take Okada from where I was, to meet up.
“You won’t believe this, but it’s the truth. Do you know that when my surveillance team alerted me of the suspect’s presence at his Magodo mansion, I had no other option than to take Okada from where I was at Ikeja GRA to Magodo?”
I INSTRUCTED MY GUYS TO GIVE HIM WARNING SHOTS; THAT WAS TO ANNOUNCE OUR PRESENCE, AND THAT KEPT HIM INDOORS UNTIL I GOT THERE AND DIRECTED THE AFFAIRS
Kyari said though it might sound funny, policemen sometimes must do “unconventional things” to get at their targets or what they actually wanted.
“I was approaching former tollgate, when I got another call that he might drive out any moment. So, I instructed my guys to give him warning shots; that was to announce our presence, and that kept him indoors until I got there and directed the affairs,” he said.
The IRT boss stated that he and his team had been on Evans’ trail for close to 10 years until the kidnap kingpin met his waterloo last Sunday.
“We have been following him, through intelligence gathering and surveillance, but we have always lost him. He is a very intelligent criminal with a very sound IQ, I must tell you,” he said.
Kyari further disclosed that he and his team mounted a surveillance on Evans five days before last Sunday, when he was finally arrested.
“When we tracked him to Lagos, I was in Abuja. The moment I was sure he was in Lagos, we moved down to Lagos on Monday of that week. We came by road and slept at a police station close to Evans’ residence and started our surveillance on him,” he said.
