The Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested a 33-year-old man, over the alleged attempt to kidnap a two-year-old boy at Owode, Ogun.
The operatives got a hint of the kidnap attempt of the boy from one of the two persons whom the prime suspect had contracted to perpetrate the crime.
Spokesperson of the Lagos State Police command, SP Dolapo Badmos, who confirmed the arrest to newsmen on Tuesday, said the suspect was arrested on Saturday.
Badmos said that upon further intelligence repots, a member of the RRS decoy team posed as a lady that the kidnapper sought to help give the child good care.
She said that for more than two weeks, while the kidnapping plan took shape, the investigator, pretending as an accomplice, was exchanging information with the prime suspect.
The police spokesperson said that the suspect assured the accomplice that he had gotten a motorcycle to use in kidnapping the boy, and would demand N10 million as ransom.
Badmos said the prime suspect demanded for such money because he believed that the father of the boy, who is a landlord and dealer in electrical appliances, would be able to pay.
“When the Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni was informed of the jurisdictional challenge of arresting the suspect in Ogun, he ordered the decoy team to proceed, assuring them that he would contact his colleague in Ogun.
“One of the suspects was shocked by the insistence of the prime suspect to kidnap the little boy and request for N10 million ransom.
“He claimed to know that it was going to boomerang if he concealed the information and not inform the police.
“Then he called one of his friends who resides in Lagos and explained the kidnap attempt on the boy.
“It was his friend that told him to come to Lagos to inform the RRS, which he did,” Badmos said.
She said that the prime suspect had earlier kidnapped two persons in Kogi, where he collected huge ransom from their families.
Badmos said the suspect had confessed to the crime and claimed that he initiated the plan in order to get money to pay his mother’s hospital bills.
“I have been on the trail of that young boy and his parents for quite a while now. I conceived the idea to kidnap him when I was looking for money for my mother’s hospital bills.
“I wanted to demand for N10 million ransom, but if his parents could not afford the whole, at least I was expecting N3 million at the end of the day,” she quoted the suspect as saying.
Badmos said that the suspect would be charged to court upon completion of Police investigation.
She said the suspect has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, for further investigation. (NAN)