POLICEMEN from Oyo State Police Command and their Lagos State counterpart on Thursday recorded a huge success when a serving soldier, whose name was given as Bada Yussuf, was arrested in Ibadan in connection with the kidnap of an Indian, Oroj Cink Comasin.

Comasin, an engineer with a telecommunications giant, was said to have been kidnapped while working in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, on Monday, December 31, 2012.

Saturday Tribune learnt that the abductors demanded an unspecified amount of money from the relations of their victim and directed the relations to Ibadan to drop the ransom.

However, the Indian nationals who were to drop the ransom, it was learnt, sought an audience with the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Mr Mbu Joseph Mbu, and told him of their mission to the state.

The Commisioner of Police reportedly assigned a crack intelligence team to join the policemen who came from Lagos to rescue the kidnapped Indian.

Police sources said the soldier, in uniform, was arrested around Guru Maharajji area, along Lagos - Ibadan Expressway where he had gone in a car to collect the ransom.

The policemen were reportedly shocked to see that it was a soldier and three civilians that were behind the kidnap.

He was nabbed and the Indian was rescued while his three accomplices escaped.

The rescued Indian, who was without shoes when he was seen by Saturday Tribune, at the police headquarters in Ibadan, and the suspect have been taken to Lagos for further investigations.

Saturday Tribune gathered that the 22-year-old soldier, an indigene of Lagos State, joined the Nigerian Army in 2011 and was attached to 81 Batallion, Mokola Barracks in Ibadan.

He was reportedly on pass (a kind of casual leave) at the time he was apprehended, which gave an indication that he must have taken permission to deceive his superiors and to enable him carry out the crime without being declared absent from work.

Confirming the story, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Mbu Joseph Mbu, said the arrest was not a success for a particular police command but the Inspector -General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, and the entire Nigeria Police Force.

When asked to confirm the name of the suspect, the police commissioner refused, but said that the case and the persons involved had been transferred to Lagos State.

“The civilians did not feature directly but it was the soldier who came forward to collect the ransom,” the Commissioner of Police told Saturday Tribune.

When contacted, the spokesman for 2 Mechanised Division of the Nigeria Army, Lieutenant Colonel Mustapha Anka, confirmed that “we heard an information that a soldier was arrested on an alleged case of kidnapping and that he had been taken to Lagos State.”

He added: “We don’t have the full details yet, but all hands are on deck to know the real situation of things. The Army does not condone any criminality so we will still get to you later when we have more information.”

http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/component/k2/item/2385-serving-soldier-kidnaps-indian-•arrested-by-police-•we-don’t-condone-criminality-—army