The Oyo State Police Command has arrested a suspected kidnapper, who wrote a letter to a private university in Oyo town and told the management of his plan to abduct three students of the institution.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Adebowale Williams, while parading the suspected kidnappers and other suspects on Monday, noted that the suspects were arrested at different times by men of the command.
The CP said the suspected kidnapper asked the university to pay N10 million to stop him from striking. He was also said to have written a bank in the town to notify the management of his intention to attack the place.
He, however, said the arrests of the suspects were made possible by the crime tackling approach “premised upon improved communal partnerships and technology-aided inquiries.”
He said, “The command’s monitoring unit has intercepted a kidnap mastermind whose mode of operation is to run detailed background checks on unsuspected victims and then inform them through writing of his intentions to abduct them unless a stipulated amount of money could be sourced and paid to him.
“Preliminary investigations revealed on Thursday, August 11, 2022 at about 8am, members of a notorious kidnapping syndicate sent a ‘’hand-written” note to the management of a private university in Oyo town wherein they threatened to abduct three of its students should the management fail to pay up N10,000,000 within a stipulated period.
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“The threat, as expected, disrupted academic activities within the university, stirring up panic and uncertainty among the university community.
“Basking under the euphoria of what they presumed was a successful scheme, and blinded with greed, they decided to extend a similar (hand-written) notification to a branch office of a new generation bank within Owode area, Oyo, with the intentions of invading it later in the week.
“Consequent upon the above, discreet forensic based investigations were carried out and this led to the arrest of one Azeez Mufutau ‘M’ whose phone numbers were inscribed on the ‘’hand-written notes’’ sent to the both the school management and bank.
“Upon questioning, the suspect confirmed that the phone number on the note was his but denied being the author of the document.
“The investigation further led to the arrest of one Olarinde Adekunle ‘M’ age 37 years, who confessed to being the author the hand-written notes under scrutiny and added that Azeez Mufutau ‘m’ was used as a decoy for the purpose of concealing his direct involvement.”
According to him, a Tecno phone was recovered from the suspect who some said might not be mentally okay.