If not for the quick intervention of some security guards along the Salvation Road in the Opebi area of Lagos, a suspected dare-devil kidnapper, who pretended to be a taxi driver, would have succeeded in abducting some school children, who were going home after closing from school.
The fake taxi driver, according to an eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity, drove his rickety Peugeot car to the entrance of the Salvation Road gate, where some students were coming out from a grammar school, positioned himself and started beckoning on the students to enter his taxi.
But a security guard manning the gate felt it was unusual for a taxi driver to stay at the gate at that point in time to solicit for passengers. He went close and questioned the fake taxi driver.
As the security guard was questioning the fake taxi driver, a lady, who had fallen his victim some weeks back, but was lucky to have escaped unhurt, recognised the suspected kidnapper and quickly raised the alarm!
The suspected kidnapper then made desperate moves to escape from the scene, but some officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority controlling traffic at the Salvation Road Junction, quickly rushed in and apprehended him. They immediately called in the police, as a mob threatened to lynch the suspect.
Before the police could arrived at the scene, the suspected kidnapper had been given a thorough beating of his life.
A resident, who simply identified himself as Femi, said, “Infact, if not for the lady, the suspected kidnapper could have succeeded in abducting some of the students, who would have mistaken him for a genuine taxi driver and would have boarded his car only to be taken away to unknown destination and even killed.
“The man wanted to escape immediately the lady raised the alarm. But thank God for those security guards at the gate and the LASTMA men around. He would have escaped. People need to be vigilant in order not to fall prey to all these evil men.”
Some residents said there had been a rise in crime in the area, urging the Lagos State Government to beef-up security in the area.
A resident, who would not want to be identified, said that the people had been keeping watch on the activities of hoodlums in the neighbourhood, adding that they had begun to work in collaboration with the vigilance group in the area to curb crimes.
The suspected kidnapper was immediately taken to the Area F Police Command Headquarters.
A police source at the station said that investigation into the matter was ongoing, and that the suspect would be charged to court
afterwards.
Ngozi Amuche, Ikeja, Lagos.
