The police in Oyo state have detained 26 suspected criminals, including several members of a notorious kidnapping gang that kidnapped an academic Don and seven other individuals on October 28 while they were driving along the Lagos/Ibadan expressway near Ibadan.
Adewale Osifeso, the police public relations officer in Oyo State, made this statement as he paraded the suspects who had been detained for a variety of crimes, including armed robbery, abduction, car snatching, and other criminally linked offenses.
Before they reached their waterloo, Mr. Osifeso claimed that the alleged kidnappers were frightening motorists on the Lagos–Ibadan expressway as a gang.
The police spokesman stated further that the alleged kidnappers equally attacked a team of responding Policemen while heeding the distress call in a bid to rescue trapped victims on the highway and later led to the death of an Inspector of Police who paid the supreme price in a fierce gun duel.
He noted that the kidnappers later whisked the victims away to an unknown destination through the thick forest along the said Ibadan/Lagos expressway while their relatives were contacted for monetary demands in exchange for their liberty.
“In one of the most coordinated operations in the history of the Command, all Command’s Operational, tactical and Intelligence assets were collapsed and fused as one to attain the goal of immediate rescue of the abductees unhurt and the apprehension of their abductors for prosecution.”
Also, two members of a criminal syndicate who specialize in removing exotic cars from where they are parked by unsuspecting members of the public went to a car park designated for staff of the University College Hospital ‘’UCH’’ Ibadan and removed two Toyota Camry Cars with Registration Numbers AKD 153 UE and LND 216 CD from where they were parked by their respective owners.