…Police: Criminals will be flushed out
Police and security agents in Ogun State have foiled a syndicate that specialises in kidnapping and abducting children in Nigeria, killing and selling their body parts in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
One of the suspects, Tayo Adeleke, who was arrested by a combined team of Police, So-Safe and local Vigilantes as two other members of the syndicate escaped, has confessed to the crimes.
It was learnt that the suspect gained access into Christ Greatness Apostolic Ministry with the claim that he came to charge his phone during the church vigil at Omupenpen community, in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of the state.
According to the General Overseer of the Church, Pastor Adegboyega Olubisi Taiwo, the suspect later confessed that he came into the community with members of his gang to abduct children whom they plan to kill and sell their body parts to a buyer in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
Narrating experience
Taiwo said: “On December 26, 2023, we were having a vigil around 2am in our church, when a man walked into the church. Initially, I thought he was the person I invited to play keyboard for us and he went straight to sit on a chair.
“I was still on the altar preaching and watching him sitting, but an usher approached me and whispered into my ear that the man who entered into the church was not the person we invited.”
He added: “After I finished preaching, I went outside to meet the security guards guarding the church who called him out of the church and inquired from him what he came to do in the church at that hour of the night. He, however claimed that he came to charge his phone in the church.
“We didn’t know that two of his other gang members were waiting for him on a motorcycle across the expressway expecting him to bring a kidnapped child.
“When his two other gang members who were waiting for him saw that he had been apprehended, they escaped on their motorcycle. When he noticed his gang had escaped, he also tried to run, but he was overpowered by the security guards. He later confessed that they were kidnappers, but sometimes kill their victims and sell their body parts in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
Pastor Taiwo added that the suspect also confessed that he had a ring he uses to touch any victim he wanted to kidnap and such a person would become unconscious and would be taken away.
“He told us that some of their targets are people sleeping in the church or those who go out to urinate during vigils he confessed that whosoever they kill, the body parts would be hidden in sacks to avoid eagle eyes of security men at the Nigeria and Cotonou boarders.
“After making the confessional statement, the So-Safe guards moved him to Owode Police Division where he also told the DPO exactly what he told us earlier. Three days after the incident, I was invited to Ogun State Police Command, Eleweran, where I wrote a statement and the suspect was brought back to my church and later taken back to Eleweran after inspecting my church and the environment.
“I want to appeal to property owners who are yet to develop their land to please come and start developing it, because bushes in their abandoned land serve as hideouts to criminals.”
Three days before they came to our church, it was gathered that they had kidnapped a woman at Lufuwape village and collected N43 million from the victim’s family. This is the second time we are experiencing kidnapping in our community.
“Last year, June 3, 2023, we were having our cross over service to the month of July in my Church and also at the Redeemed Christian Church of God in the same community when I heard gunshots outside the church and I came out to check what was happening.
“Unfortunately, the kidnappers had attacked and killed the pastor in the Redeemed Church and also shot at me, but God saved me. Barely six months after now I am experiencing another one.”
CDA chairman condemns act
Chairman of the Community Development Association in the area, Mr. Friday Erureri, said this was not the first time kidnappers were invading their community.
“I was sleeping on December 26, when I received a phone call from the head of the So -Safe that a kidnapper had been arrested. When I got to the scene, he was already confessing that they kidnap children and adults, kill them, sell their body parts to buyers in Cotonou. He also claimed that their hideout is in the Sagamu area, where they slaughter and harvest human parts before moving to the neighboring country to sell them, adding that they have security agencies collaborating with them at the two boarders.
“When we got to Owode Police Station, I felt probably he would change what he told us. Fortunately, it was the same thing he told us that he told the DPO, he also showed the DPO a phone number of one of the receivers of body parts in Cotonou. He said human head is costlier than other body parts. He said people no longer buy legs.”
Erureri added that the DPO commended them that he had been hunting for the kidnappers and also received a lot of reports about them, but now they had made his job easy.
Police react
The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Omolola Odutola, said that Adeleke was apprehended with the joint effort of the police, the So-Safe Corps and other vigilantes even as his colleagues escaped through the bush.
According to Odutola, the suspect confessed during interrogation that “they came to the area to kidnap children. He said they have a syndicate and they have been kidnapping children and selling them in the Republic of Benin. We have arrested one and he would help in bringing others to book.”
Odutola disclosed that kidnappers have observed that the command has taken charge of the highways in Ogun and they are now trying to go into communities to operate.
“Going into communities to kidnap is the new trend now. We have taken over the highways in Ogun. You will see policemen on the roads now. But the kidnappers have gotten into the inner villages to start disturbing. We will get them, we are going back to the drawing board. Criminals have no place in this state.
“So, we are calling on our traditional rulers, our community leaders in the state to establish like an internal security to barricade the entry and exit points to their communities and give security agents the necessary information to aid in the security of lives and property. Villagers can easily identify strangers in their communities, they should help the police. Thank God this was a foiled one.
“The Ogun State Command under the Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alamutu, will not relent until criminals are flushed out of Ogun, wherever they are,” Odutola assured.
