Two suspected kidnappers met their waterloo yesterday when a vigilante group at Imere village in Igalamela Odolu Local Government Area of Kogi State rescued their victim, lynched one of them and arrested the other and handed him over to Kogi State Police Command.
Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, who disclosed this yesterday while parading the suspected kidnapper, Ibrahim Yakubu, and his late accomplice, Wada Mustapha, at the command headquarters in Lokoja, the state capital.
He said the duo had robbed a household, whisked away their victim in her vehicle and later demanded N50 million ransom to free her.
The suspects were said to have gained entrance into the victim’s home through the ceiling, demanded the whereabouts of her husband, a council treasurer, and failure to produce him resulted in brutalisation of the victim and her children.
Ojukwu explained that the suspects met their waterloo shortly after 6:30pm when the victim’s vehicle, a Honda of Discussion Continues, developed a fault and they had to abandon it.
The kidnappers quickly hijacked a motorcycle, which later gave them away as the local vigilante group at Imere village accosted them on suspicion that they were not the owner of the motorcycle on which they rode with their victim tucked in the middle.
Narrating her ordeal, the victim said she and her children were mercilessly beaten by the suspects. The victim, Mrs. Mary Ocheje, stated that the kidnappers came in army uniform and collected four phones.
Said she: “After beating us with cutlasses and other weapons they came with, they asked for the key of my car and demanded if it had security, I demobilised the security thinking they would go with it, but they shoved me inside, blindfolded me and took off.
