The Oyo State Police Command on Saturday paraded Aliyu and three other members of his gang at the command headquarters in Eleyeile, Ibadan.
Other members of the kidnap gang were – Babuga Salihu (20), Aura Sands (20), and Amuda Yusufu (19).
The victim, Alhaji Aliyu Babatunde, was abducted at his Igboora home town and spent three days in the kidnappers’ den before he was released after the family paid N1 million ransom.
The victim’s son, who was leader of the gang, told journalists that he was lured into the criminal act because of his father’s insensitive attitude to welfare of his children.
He said:
“We are many. My father married many wives and he doesn’t care for us. We are left by my father to fend for ourselves. So, I think the only way to get money out of him is to organise for his abduction and force him to part with the money.”
The boy confessed that the group collected N1 million from his father before they released him Babatunde added that he invited his three friends to abduct his father for the purpose of getting money from him.
The state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, briefed journalists on how police smashed the kidnap gang.
He said the boy conspired with other members of the gang and kidnapped his father at Gbogbolowo camp in Igboora at about 6:00 p.m. of May 17.
The police commissioner said:
“The victim was eventually taken to an unknown place where he was kept for some days by his abductors who later demanded ransom as a condition for his release.
“Initial arrest of one of the suspects by combined efforts of the local vigilante group and the police and further discreet investigation carried out by operatives of the Special Squad led to subsequent arrest of the kingpin and other members of the gang at their various hideouts in the state.”
