A33-year-old man, Suleiman Seidu, has been arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command, for allegedly attempting to kidnap a two-yearold boy in the Owode area of the state.
Seidu’s arrest followed a tip -off that an attempt was being made to kidnap the little boy by one of the two persons whom the prime suspect had allegedly contracted to perpetrate the crime. After painstaking intelligence on the matter, a member of the RRS Decoy Team had posed as a lady whose help the kidnapper sought to give the child a good care.
The RRS source indicated that for more than two weeks, while the kidnapping plot took shape, the investigator, pretending as an accomplice, was exchanging information with the prime suspect.
It was gathered that the suspect assured the accomplice that he had got a motorcycle that would be used in kidnapping the boy, stressing that the ransom was N10 million, which the father of the boy would be able to afford as a land lord and dealer in electrical appliances.
The source added that the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, was informed of the jurisdictional challenge of arresting the kidnapped suspect in Ogun State.
Owoseni ordered the decoy team to proceed, assuring them that he would contact his colleague in Ogun. The RRS source added that one of the kidnapping suspects was shocked by the insistence of the prime suspect on the abduction of the little boy and demand for N10 million ransom.
The informant said, “I knew it was going to boomerang if I concealed the information and not inform the police. Then, I called one of my friends who resides in Lagos and explained the whole idea of the kidnap attempt on an innocent boy by someone in my neighbourhood, and the person also solicited that I join him to commit the crime.
“It was this my friend who told me to come to Lagos to inform the RRS. I eventually came the following day to report the case at its headquarters in Lagos”.
The source added that the suspect had successfully kidnapped two persons in Kogi State, where he collected huge ransoms from their families.
