Rotimi’s family paid N13m to free wife from kidnappers, says suspect

Abductors of Mrs Titilayo Rotimi, wife of former Western State Military Administrator Gen Oluwole Rotimi, collected N13million from the family before releasing her, a member of the gang said in Ibadan yesterday.

Mrs Rotimi was kidnapped in front of her company on December 10 last year and released 10 days later.

Kingsley Udom-Johnson, a member of the four-man gang that kidnapped her, also recounted how they abducted the businesswoman at her Alakia office in the Oyo State capital after the close of work.

Udom-Johnson was paraded along with two other suspected members of the gang by Oyo State Police in Ibadan yesterday.

Recalling how the four-man gang captured their victim, the suspect said they took off from their location at Ilasa in Lagos in a Nissan car and laid a siege to the premises of her logistics firm until she closed from work.

On sighting her car coming out of the large compound, Udom-Johnson recalled that the three of them, armed with guns, swooped on the businesswoman and forced her into their waiting car. They then zoomed off.

According to him, their victim was taken to a building in Ala, Ogun State. The building, he said, they rented for the purpose of keeping kidnap victims.

The suspect explained that they supplied Mrs Rotimi all the food she desired throughout her 10-day stay in their custody.

Udom-Johnson said the overall head of the gang, one Daniel Effiong, contacted Gen. Rotimi’s family whose members brought the money to J4 Community – an Ogun village that borders Ogun, Osun and Ondo states – before Mrs Rotimi was released.

Effiong, according to Commissioner of Police (CP) Mbu Joseph Mbu, is now dead.

Two other members of the gang paraded by the police are Akaneyere Sunday and Godwin Mfon. They all hail from Akwa Ibom State.

Udom-Johnson said he received N2.5 million as his share of the ransom. Explaining how he spent it, he said he cleared a debt of over N1 million and then bought a Honda Accord car for use as airport taxi in Lagos.

The kidnap suspect regretted his action and called on others still in the criminal act to “repent”.

Members of an armed robbery gang that robbed a family of a 4matic Mercedez Benz car in Lekki, Lagos, locking up a young girl in a wardrobe until she suffocated, were also paraded by the police. They were arrested in Sabo, Ibadan after selling the second car they snatched from Lagos.

Two other gang members were paraded with the two robbery and kidnap gangs. Mbu said: “We patiently went into the matter, dug into it and we were able to arrest the kidnappers in Ogun State. They have confessed to the crime. We got information from Nigerians, worked on it and we finally got them. Very soon, the law will take its course.”

The police chief added that one of the suspects is a former employee of Mrs Rotimi’s firm, AOP Logistics Limited.