A female member of a kidnapping syndicate has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly masterminding the abduction of a pentecostal pastor in Abeokuta metropolis.
The suspect, Ibikunle Opeyemi, was arrested alongside one other male member of the gang, Kadiri Jamiu, in the early hours of Thursday, 14fh July 2022.
The syndicate, comprising the female member and three men in Military camouflage, the police said, stormed ZOE Family International Church in the Odo-Eran area of the state capital and whisked away its pastor, Mapai Samuel, while preaching at about 8:00 pm the previous day.
Thereafter, the abductors called to make a demand of an unspecified amount as ransom.
In a press statement issued by the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, he said, “Upon a distress call received by operatives of the Aregbe Police Division, the DPO, CSP Ikechukwu Gabriel, and his detectives quickly embarked on a technical and intelligence-based investigation and discovered that the suspects were hiding somewhere around Adigbe area of Abeokuta”.
Oyeyemi further stated that detectives from both Aregbe and Adigbe divisions, led by their DPOs, stormed the hideout, successfully rescued the pastor and laid hands on the two suspects, while the two men in military camouflage escaped.
“On interrogation, the woman amongst them claimed to have been in a business relationship with the pastor, and that the pastor shortchanged her, a development, she claimed, led to her taking her pound of flesh and consequently contracted the three men to help kidnap the pastor, to serve as a lesson to him.
The state Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole, commended his men for their quick response to the distress call and ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to the Anti- kidnapping Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for discreet investigation.
The CP also directed that other the two other fleeing members of the gang must be hunted for and brought to book.