Edo police arrest kidnap suspect linked to a deadly abduction gang and recover the bodies of two victims from a forest along the Benin-Lagos Expressway.
Operatives of the Edo State Police Command have recovered the bodies of two kidnap victims from a forest along the Benin-Lagos Expressway.
The victims were among several people abducted last month from Ekiadolor. Police found their decomposing bodies after arresting a suspected kidnapper linked to the crime.
The arrest followed an operation by the Command’s Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU). Officers tracked members of a seven-man kidnapping gang operating along the Benin-Lagos and Benin-Akure expressways. The suspects exchanged gunfire with police during the operation. Several gang members escaped with gunshot wounds.
The Commander of the VCRU, CSP Osagie Godspower, led journalists and health officials into the forest where officers recovered the bodies.
One of the survivors, whose mother was among those killed, recounted the ordeal. She said kidnappers attacked their home in Iyowa Community, Ekiadolor. They abducted her, her mother and their maid.
She said the gang later kidnapped three more families and brought them to the same camp in the forest.
According to her, the victims were forced to move through the forest at night and rest during the day.
She said the kidnappers kept them in one location for two days. During that period, the gang asked some captives their ages, including her 66-year-old mother, another woman aged 45 and a 15-year-old boy.
The victims initially believed the kidnappers planned to release them because of their ages. Instead, the gang took them away later that day.
The survivor said the kidnappers shot the 45-year-old woman and her mother. The other woman died immediately. Her mother remained alive for a short time before she died.
She added that the gang later moved the remaining captives to another location. There, they shot the 15-year-old boy, who also died.
The survivor said her family paid ₦11 million in ransom and provided other items demanded by the kidnappers. Other families also paid ransom before the gang released them.
The Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Eno Ikoedem, said investigators made a major breakthrough on May 19.
According to her, VCRU operatives spotted four members of the gang in the forest and engaged them in a gun battle. Although the suspects escaped, several sustained gunshot injuries.
She said police later traced one of the suspects, 24-year-old Haruna Musa, to a location where he was seeking treatment for his wounds. Officers arrested him, and he reportedly confessed to the crime.
According to the police spokesperson, Musa later led investigators to the forest where officers recovered the two bodies. He also helped police locate the remains of the 15-year-old boy, which had already been evacuated.
Ikoedem said police are still searching for the remaining gang members. She expressed confidence that officers would soon arrest the rest of the suspects.
Meanwhile, Musa admitted being part of the seven-man gang. He claimed he previously worked as a cattle handler in Ogun State.
According to him, a relative invited him to Ogun State to help manage cattle during a previous Sallah celebration. After the cattle business ended, the relative offered him another job.
Musa said he later discovered that the work involved kidnapping. He claimed he stayed with the group because he feared they would kill him if he tried to leave.
