''We Kidnapped Our Boss' Son Because He Refused To Settle Us'' Traders Apprehended While Withdrawing Ransom Money In Bank Say

Its only Tuesday and The Lagos State Commisioner Mr. Fatai Owoseni has already had a week's worth of cases. 20-year-old suspect, Blessing Emmanuel, has told of the reason he and his colleague harboured a grudge against their boss and decided to act on it. 

Emmanuel, who claimed to be a trader at the Mandilas Market, Lagos Island, claimed that he abducted the 10-year-old in the Alafia area of Orile-Iganmu, on his way to school, to get back at their boss after serving him for 4 years and then refusing to settle them. They explained: 

“I started staying with my Oga in 2013. He took me from my parents to stay with him so that I could learn how to sell clothes. In the agreement he had with my parents before he took me, he promised to set me up after four years.

“In 2016, he was supposed to help me start my own business; but instead, he opened another shop and asked me to be paying him N20,000 monthly.

“I could not cope because of the recession in the country, so I asked him to pay me as agreed, but he refused. Rather, he sent me back to the village.

“I came back early January and I stayed in a hotel. It was there that the idea of kidnapping his son came to me. Last week Monday, around 7am, I laid in ambush along the route where his son normally passed to school in the Alafia area of Orile.

“The boy emerged around 7.45am. He came to me when I called him and I took him away,” the suspect said.

The suspect further explained that he kept the young boy in his hotel room for four days, until he was arrested on Apapa Road.

“Throughout the four days, the boy stayed with me in my hotel room at Oyingbo. I called my Oga on the telephone the next day to pay N5m into my account if he hoped to see his son again. I sent him my account number.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the suspect admitted being the mastermind of the alleged abduction of his boss’ son. It was reported that the suspects were apprehended in a bank in the Oyingbo area of the state as they were about withdrawing the ransom paid by the boy’s family into an account.

“I was on my way to collect my ATM card from the bank on Apapa Road when I was arrested. I never knew that the police were on my trail,” he added.

The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, while briefing newsmen on the arrest, said the suspect, along with one other, kidnapped the 10-year-old boy. He said after kidnapping their victim, the suspects demanded N5m as ransom to release the boy.