On July 17, 2016, 15 men stormed two
poultry farms located at Egan, Itoki area
of Ikorodu, Lagos. The men who arrived
in three boats got to the farms, they
grabbed the owners, – Alhaji Oyebanji
Wasiu and Alhaji Isiaka Owolabi along
with the manager of the two farms, 43-
year-old Abiodun Adeniyi.
When three suspects in the case, who
are now in police custody, narrated the
event that led to the kidnapping, it
became clear that there was a deep-
seated vengeance involved.
The kidnappers’ inside man, 24-year-old
Idowu Dauwujoh, who is also one of the
suspects in custody, told Punch
correspondent that when he got a job as
a worker on the farms, he was
employed along with three other
friends, Kekeminiwei, Afro and
Odesebra, all Ijaw young men.
Dauwujoh, who is also an Ijaw man,
said few months after they were
employed, Kekeminiwei, Afro and
Odesebra were sacked.
He said,
“The allegations were that they
were stealing from the farms.
Then, Afro was dating a lady who
also worked on the farms. It
became an issue between him and
the manager of the farms
(Adeniyi) and the man told him to
leave.
“I was the only one remaining in
the farms, but I was always in
touch with the other boys. One
day, they called me and said
anytime the owners of the farms
were around, I should let them
know. They told me they were
planning to kidnap them and that
I should act as if I knew nothing.”
Few days before July 17, 2016,
Dauwujoh, called his friends to inform
them that his bosses would be around in
a few days.As soon as the owners
(Wasiu and Owolabi) arrived their
farms on Wednesday, July 17, Dauwujoh
gave his friends the signal and they
moved in.
Dauwujoh said when they kidnapped his
bosses including the manager, he had
no idea where they were taking them
to. But he fled the farms to Delta State.
One of the suspects in custody, 26-year-
old Priye Idoro, said he took part in the
kidnapping and was actually the cook in
the camp where they kept their victims.
Idoro said, “Before that day, I was
not a kidnapper. All I was doing
was bursting pipelines to steal
crude oil at Igbo Olomu (a suburb
of Ikorodu, Lagos, where militants
sacked the entire community
recently).“One day, one of my
bosses, who employed me as a
pipeline vandal, informed me of
the kidnap plan and I willingly
went along.
“We arrived at the area before the
kidnapping day and stayed in the
forest for three days. As soon as
we got the signal, we moved in
and took the men.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the victims
were taken deep into the creek where
they were instructed to contact their
families.
Their families later put together the sum
of N22m as ransom which they dropped
in a particular location as instructed by
the kidnappers.
Idoro said,
“The first day we brought the men
to the creek, I was told to go and
buy foodstuff by nightfall. I
bought fish, soup ingredients and
garri.“I was feeding them eba
most of the time. Cooking was all I
was doing, my bosses were the
ones doing the negotiation. When
the ransom was paid, they told me
it was N20m. They brought the
money in a carton and two
‘Ghana-Must-Go’ bags.
“They gave me N500,000. I treated
the men well. Before they released
them, they were even praying for
me that I would do something
great with the money I got.“One
evening, I went to buy food and
when I got back, they had released
them. I asked about the manager
too and one of the men said he
had killed him because he was the
one who sent him away from the
farm, where he was working
before. They did not tell me what
they did with his body.”
The group dispersed and Idoro travelled
to Sapele, Delta State, where he bought a
boat with his own share. He said he
wanted to use the boat for water
transport.
He would later be arrested at Sapele.
The police tracked down Idoro and the
other two suspects, after the murdered
manager’s phone was tracked by the
police and located at Delta State.
One of the kidnappers had given the
phone as a gift to his brother, 27-year-
old Daniel Jekene, who quickly helped in
getting the other two arrested after the
police nabbed him.
When Dauwujoh was arrested, it was
learnt that the gang had given his
N2.5m share to his elder brother to give
to him. But the elder brother absconded
with the money.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police,
Mr. Fatai Owoseni, said investigation
was still ongoing to arrest other
members of the gang.
countinew READING http://www.freshvibesblog.com.ng/2016/10/kidnappers-abduct-poultry-farm-owners.html?m=1