Police arrest ex-banker, undergraduates for kidnapping, robbery (See Photo)

                    Thirty-two-year-old Edet Ekuno, an ex-banker, and seven others are currently in the police net for alleged kidnapping, robbery and illegal dealing in arms.

Ekuno, it was learnt, worked with one Hope Okon, an ND 2 Computer Engineering student at a polytechnic in Akwa Ibom; Sunday Samiga, Unagbon Isaiah and other suspects at large, to kidnap unsuspecting well-to-do residents around Lagos and Akwa Ibom states.                        

PUNCH Metro gathered that a decoy team, led by the officer in charge of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad, ASP Abba Kyari, rounded up the suspects at about 2am on March 7 at D2 Hotel in the Ojodu-Berger area, where they were reportedly perfecting plans to kidnap a businessman in Magodo Estate.

Two locally-made pistols and 18 live cartridges were said to have been recovered from the gang.

A cab driver, who reportedly aided the syndicate with his car, was said to have evaded arrest.

Ekuno, who lives in Ajah, told PUNCH Metro that he joined the group in 2012 to kidnap one of his neighbours working with Chevron. He added that he could not explain what prompted him to the act.

He said, 

“I was laid off by the bank I used to work for. I am also an estate agent and the music minister in a church. I don’t just know what came over me. The 2012 operation involved a neighbour, but it was not successful. The man shouted for help and we fled with his money and phones. We were five in that operation. I was given N20,000 from the proceeds. Magodo operation was my second attempt.”

In his confession, 27-year-old Okon said he made N800,000 from one of his operations after collecting N5m ransom from the family of a woman they kidnapped. Okon added that he had been in Lagos for about two weeks monitoring their target’s movements.

He said, 

“In 2010, in Akwa Ibom, we kidnapped a woman whose daughter is a medical doctor. We released her after her family paid N5m. My share was N800,000. I used it to keep poultry, but it later collapsed due to poor management. The cab driver gave us information that the businessman was rich because he rode different types of cars. I was about to go back to Akwa Ibom having exhausted the N50,000 on me when we were arrested. Samiga and Isaiah usually helped us to scare our victims with guns but they don’t kill.