Leadership Newspaper reports that chains of kidnappers den and Kidnapping hotspots has been uncovered in Kogi State, North Central Nigeria; where several kidnapped victims are being held.
This discovery followed the latest release of a naval personnel and a 90 year-old man.
Most of the kidnappers’ dens are located in the hinterland of Idah local government and Odu- Okpakili in Dekina local government.
It was gathered that there are pockets of other criminal hideouts spread across the Kogi East where victims of kidnap are camp with women cooking for them.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY gathered that the 90 year old Pa Enegbani Daniel Ocheje who was kidnapped at the early hours of 21 June, 2016, by six heavily armed men; dressed in Mobile Police uniform, was only released when his family squeezed out a ransom of N1.5 million.
Also, the kidnapped naval Officer, who is attached to a retired senior naval Officer, was on his way from Lagos, where he had gone to pick his bosses car, when he was kidnapped by armed criminal gang. It took the combined effort of security agencies to ensure his release, penultimate week.
The incidences of kidnapping, it was gathered, has thrown Kogi State into palpable apprehension with the well-offs who are from the area rushing back home to relocate their aged parents and love ones.
Old men and women in wealthy families are the prime target of the kidnappers, it was gathered.
“They blind folded me and drove off,” Pa Ocheje told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, how he was kidnapped.
“At a point, they stopped and removed the blind fold. I alighted and was ushered into a makeshift tent. They requested to know, if I knew where I was,” the 90 years old said.
The trend of kidnapping in the area escalated, following the boom in cashew nut and sesame seed business, which led to the influx of Chinese and Indian businessmen/women, into the Kogi East area.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY gathered that before the kidnapping of the naval Officer and the 90 year old man, which prompted the new Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris to deploy a detachment of special squad of Mobile Police to the area; it all began with the kidnap of a Chinese woman – Lilly Yunpin, at Etutekpe in Dekina local Government Area.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY gathered that all effort by the Nigerian Police to rescue the Chinese proved futile, until N8.5 million was paid as ransom.
Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY on why the young people decided to take to criminality, instead of looking for legitimate means of earning a livelihood, Pa Ocheje said they had complained of lack of job which made it difficult for them to feed neither send their children to school.
The story is not different in the kidnap of Dr. Barnabas, a Medical Doctor at the Kogi State University, Anyigba, in Dekina Local Government Area.
He was picked up by heavily armed men, who threatened to finish him, if their demands were not met.
Many Nigerians contributed in raising the ransom that led to his release, it was gathered.
“I asked them how they got to know about me, they told me that boys from my community came to inform them that my children that are in Abuja and overseas are very rich,” Pa Ocheje said.
“They said that my children send me money every week. That, since I have left all money at the bank and refused to bring it home for them to ‘chop,’ if I am kidnapped, my children will be forced to cough out money,” he added.
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