[dropcap]L[/dropcap]agos Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has approved the suspension of the Baale of Shangisha in Magodo, Chief Yusuf Ogundare for faking his kidnap which allegedly took place on July 5, 2017.
The disgraceful monarch planned the fake kidnap for commercial reasons.
Ogundare’s suspension was approved by the Governor moments after the Lagos State Police Command paraded him alongside his younger brother, Mohammed Adams for conspiring to fake the alleged kidnap.
Adams, on the fateful day, reported the alleged kidnap incidence to the police.
Speaking while parading the two suspects, the State’s Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni said the Command on July 5 received the report of Ogundare’s alleged kidnap, and immediately swung into action in collaboration with other security agencies especially the Department of State Service (DSS).
Owoseni said luck however ran out on Ogundare when he was apprehended by men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) in Alausa area of the State on July 11 after he was dropped in a suspicious manner by a car which sped off immediately.
Giving details of how Ogundare was apprehended, Owoseni said: “On July 11 at about 10pm, a team of RRS patrol officers working around Alausa had sighted a vehicle drop a male adult in a suspicious manner close by Shoprite along the Secretariat road. The speed with which that car drove off attracted them to that spot and fortunately before they got to the spot, the car had taken off and a quick enquiry revealed that it was the Baale that was allegedly kidnapped.
“Immediately after while Ogundare was being debriefed, he sold a dummy that the kidnappers dropped him off but unknowingly to him, it had been found out that on the 5th of July, the day he was allegedly kidnapped in Lagos, investigation had revealed that he was driving around in Ibadan around Ashi; he went to Ilorin, he went to Iwo, he was just on a frolic.
“And unknowingly to him as well that because of information that had gotten to security services that his younger brother and his wife were being questioned and were actually in custody because of some discrepancies that were noticed in the interaction they had with security agencies, and in furtherance of the synergy existing between the Police and DSS, we jointly compared notes and our findings were such that the act of the chief was despicable and amounted to crying wolf where there is none,” Owoseni said.
He said while making reports, Adams had told security agencies that he was with the Baale at CMD Hotel when some people who claimed they wanted to buy land whisked them away and later dropped him, but investigation revealed that he (Adams) was not at any time in the hotel with the Baale but was only at the restaurant of the hotel, and after some minutes, he left, and the wife of the Baale actually drove the Venza car allegedly used to abduct the supposed victim into the hotel.
The CP added that after the suspects were confronted with the indisputable facts, they had no choice than to confess faking the kidnap.
The CP said immediately after Ogundare was allegedly kidnapped, Adams went to the community and called the town crier to order the whole community to close shops and markets should not open, an action aimed at inciting members of the community against the State Government.
He said the objective of the suspects was to falsely accuse the Oba of Shangisha as the brain behind the kidnapping, which they indeed did, as a vengeance to him being installed the Oba instead of Ogundare, and also embarrassed the State Government and as well as security agencies for arresting him (Ogundare) when he falsely displayed the plate number of Oba of Shangisha on his car.
The suspension comes just as the Police in Lagos also announced the arrest of a man who allegedly attempted to defraud his brother of N60 million by staging his own kidnap.
The spokesman of the Lagos State Police command, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, confirmed the arrest to newsmen.
According to Famous-Cole, on July 3, one Victor Udoh reported to the command that his younger brother, Ufom Edet Udoh, was kidnapped by unknown persons at Liverpool in Apapa area of Lagos state.
Famous-Cole said men of the command’s Anti-Kidnapping Squad, quickly swung into action and traced calls the complainant received on his phone.
He said that this led to the arrest of one Paul Philips Okiemute, who reported the case at the work place of the supposed victim.
“Okiemute, upon questioning, confessed that Udoh staged his own kidnap to collect money from his elder brother, to solve his financial problems.
“Udoh was not kidnapped at all. It was all a planned attempt to stage his own kidnap, so that he can be paid a N60 million ransom by his elder brother.
“The suspect said he made calls to the victim’s elder brother with an unknown number, demanding a ransom of N60 million. Ufom Edet Udoh was later picked up and he confessed to the crime.
“He confessed to have checked into a hotel at Iyana-Ipaja area on July 3, where he spent three nights without food and water, hoping to cash the money,’’ Famous-Cole said.
The image maker added that the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Mr Fatai Owoseni, however, ordered that the suspects should be immediately charged to court, “to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to cause a breach of the peace in Lagos State’’.
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