Sani Mohammed, a member of a five-man kidnap gang arrested by operatives of the IGP’s Intelligence Response Team, has disclosed that they would have made about N500 million from kidnapping wealthy victims in Abuja and Kaduna this December alone had they not been arrested.
Mohammed was arrested alongside three others from their base in Enugu State. Their arrest is sequel to the purported plan for the gang to kidnap one an Abuja-based businessman, Alhaji Ulere.
Those arrested along with Mohammed are Babangida Garba, Dogo Ibrahim, and Ibrahim Haruna. Sani told the police interrogators that their plans were to make at least N500 million from ransom, this December.
Mohammed, who the police described as one of the dangerous armed robbery suspects and kidnappers, admitted abducting a lot of affluent people in the past.
The suspect said he has lost count of the number of operations he has embarked on since he joined the gang in 2016.
Mohammed who masterminded the kidnap of his ex-boss for accusing him of stealing had worked for Alhaji Ulere till he made the allegation against him in 2016.
One of the suspects had pretended to be a customer and called Ulere on the telephone, asking the businessman to meet him along the road to his shop in Luge.
However while on his way to the agreed location, other gang members reportedly ambushed him and took him to their camp in the City Gate area. However after they demanded that the family of the kidnap victim should pay N1m ransom within 48 hours or lose him, the incident was reported to the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team led by DCP Abba Kyari who asked the family to play along with the gang.
According to a police source, Dogo, came out of the camp to collect the ransom from Ulere’s relative unknown to him that detectives were monitoring his movement.
The source said,
“The kidnappers believed that the ransom they demanded was ready and one of them, Dogo, went to receive the ransom around City Gate area of Abuja. He was arrested. He led the operatives to the camp where the victim was held hostage. Dogo’s gang members got wind of the police invasion of the camp and fled.
“They were traced to their base in Enugu State, apprehended and their guns were recovered. They confessed to have carried out several armed robberies and a series of kidnappings at various locations on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway. One AK-47 rifle and three locally made guns were recovered from them.
“Mohammed confessed that he led his gang to kidnap his former boss because the man accused him of stealing one of his cows. They threatened to kill the businessman if his relatives did not pay the N1m ransom within 48 hours.”
Mohammed, a native of Zamfara State who recounted the chain of events that led to his criminal escapades and how he became a member of the gang, explained that he joined the ring two years ago.
He said,
“I was rearing cattle, which was my father’s business. I have no formal education. I came to Abuja in 2007 and started working for Alhaji Ulere. Our relationship went sour in 2016 when he accused me of stealing a cow. I left him and travelled to Enugu State to meet my friend, Babangida, who was also rearing cattle.
“On getting there, I discovered that he already had a gang that was into armed robbery and kidnapping. I joined him and we started robbing motorists travelling on the Enugu Port-Harcourt Expressway. We normally blocked the expressway with heavy wood at night.
“We would force the vehicles to stop and rob the occupants of their cash and other valuables. We kidnapped victims that appeared rich and took them into the bush. We released them after collecting ransoms from their relatives.
“In November, I told Babangida that my former boss wrongly accused me of stealing and I suggested that we should kidnap him. Babangida agreed and he called other gang members to inform them. We went to Abuja and contacted Alhaji on the phone. As he came out, we kidnapped him and kept him in a bush in Abuja. We demanded a ransom of N1m from his family. We didn’t know that they would inform the police.
“We were waiting for Dogo to bring the money when we got information that the police were coming after us. We fled to Enugu where we were later arrested.”
However, Haruna, who said he got the highest share of the crime proceeds because the AK-47 used by the gang belonged to him, regretted to have participated in Ulere’s kidnap, adding that Babangida invited him for the operation.
