A 25-year-old suspected kidnapper, Usman Muhammadu, who was arrested by state security outfit codenamed Amotekun in Akure has revealed that he killed three victims abducted by his gang in Ondo state. (I killed three kidnapped victims)
Usman, who was paraded alongside 45 suspected criminals by the state security outfit in Akure, said that he had collected a ransom of over N500,000 from relations of victims abducted by his gang.
Describing how the gang operates, the suspect said ” we have an informant who we pay to give us information.
“After we have the information, we swing into action, kidnap the victim, take them into the forest and demand ransom from their family members.
Usman, who declined to give the reason for killing the three victims, said he however collected ransom from victims’ families.
However, NigeriaCrime.com gathered that Usman killed the victims because their families delayed the payment of ransom.
Another suspect, Yaro Yaya, who is the gang’s informant said that “my job is to pass information over to the members. I don’t know what they do with the victims, or how much they collect as ransom, they just settle me out of the ransom collected.
“I don’t ask questions, I collect whatever is given to me by the leader of the group.
Parading the suspects, the state commander of Amotekun, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, said that the 45 suspected criminals were arrested within two weeks.
Adeleye said that ” Within the last two weeks, we have been able to curtail the excesses of the criminals ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery, rape among others. We have 45 criminals that we have concluded their investigations and they are ready to go for prosecution.
“In Ore, there was a kidnapped of a family and we moved there immediately and we were able to arrest the kidnappers and released the victims.
“We also arrested some people that specialise in using vehicles to steal goats across the state and some of the goats have been recovered from them. We have a gang of fraudsters that use spiritual means to defraud some people in society.
“We have a case of some kidnappers that allege that you have hit their bikes, and when you come out to sympathise with them, they will just enter your vehicle and drive the victims away. We have eight suspected kidnappers from the Central and Southern Senatorial Districts of Ondo state.
“I must let you know that factually all these operations were done in collaboration with other sister security agencies in the state.
“The trend of crimes in Ondo state is now seriously coming down, as far as we are concerned, we are impressed about the safety of lives and properties in the state.
“If you look at the Akure metropolis, all major junctions are manned by the security operatives and we are trying more to patrol within all 18 local government areas of the state.
“As we speak now, we have put measures in place to ensure that our roads are safe from criminals, our patrol vehicles are moving round for 24 hours.
“We want to reassure the good people of Ondo state to go about their normal duties.
Adeleye said that “the reinforcement ban on the use of okada in the night is also one of the major things responsible for the downward trend of criminal activities in the state generally.