The Lagos police command’s spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, has been busted for claiming that a joint task force comprising marine police and the Nigerian Navy rescued three abducted Fouani brothers on Tuesday. Peoples Gazette has reliably learnt that the police played no role in freeing the foreign nationals.
Top police sources, acquainted with the situation, told The Gazette that the Fouani brothers, kidnapped under the Third Mainland Bridge on Thursday night by six bandits, were abandoned around 11:00 p.m. on Monday at Orugbo Waterside, a village near Epe in the creeks where community members found and took them to the Oloja of Epe’s palace.
The palace alerted the police about the matter around 2:00 a.m. and later handed the freed Fouanis over to police the same morning.
The sources told The Gazette that they could not tell whether or not the naval tactical squad played any role in rescuing the hostages from the kidnappers’ lair, given that it was community members who found them in a boat on the creeks.
It was also unclear whether a ransom was paid to the bandits to set free the Fouanis in the creeks of the Orugbo community, where they were found.
Amtar Fouani, 37, Abbas Mohamed Fouani, 40, Hassan Fouani, 29, and two Nigerians, Emmanual Autai, 43, and Ridwan Badari, 31, were all found in the creeks and handed over to the police.
The Fouani brothers, who sources confirmed were unharmed in captivity, were later taken to their apartment at Ocean Parade Towers Banana Island by police officers Tuesday.
Information from police sources corroborated a post by social media user @masudayeola, who tweeted pictures of the released Fouani brothers around 11:00 p.m. on Monday and tagged X handles of Mr Hundeyin and the police to call their attention to the matter.
“@BenHundeyin @PoliceNG Sir, three kidnapped expatriates and 2 indigenes were just dumped at Ebute-Oriba, Epe LG as of this evening,” @masudayeola posted. “Please they are still there as of writing. This is a cry for rescue.”
In the pictures and videos shared by the X user, no police officers were in sight.
It was unclear why Mr Hundeyin said the police rescued the Fouanis, who were already speaking freely among Epe locals Monday evening.
Recently, a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, who was kidnapped alongside 29 others, disclosed that the kidnappers collected about N40 million in ransom before they were granted freedom.
On Friday 7 June about 30 travellers, including some students of the polytechnic, were abducted by kidnappers along the Abuja-Nasarawa Highway on Friday.
The kidnappers reportedly ambushed the vehicles transporting the travellers and took them into a nearby bush in the Uke area of Nasarawa State. A student among the abductees was travelling to her family in Abuja at the time of the incident.
Speaking with newsmen the victim recounted how the seven-man gang ambushed their vehicles, shot at the tyres, and robbed them of their belongings before abducting them into the bush.
She further explained that once in the thick bush, the kidnappers allowed the victims to rest upon realizing some were exhausted.
She disclosed that around midnight on Saturday, 8 June the kidnappers instructed the captives to call their relatives to demand a ransom of N10 million each.
The victim also stated that after several pleadings, the kidnappers grouped them into students and non-students, demanding that students collectively pay N10 million while others should pay N10 million each.
She added, “We, who are students, started calling our relatives and money was rallied around to make the payment.
“There is an Alhaji among the other group who raised about N20m and other people raised about N10m. The total money they got was about N40m.
“During the whole incident, we did not see any police officer come around till we were released. It was after they said they had got the money that they allowed us to go. We have gone to the police station but were told to write a statement.”
A relative of the victim earlier stated that the victim had reached out to her family, notifying them of her release.
“She contacted us this morning, saying they had been released. I am on my way to the police station because the number she called us from has been unreachable since,” the relative said.
Efforts to obtain a response from the Nasarawa State Police Public Relations Officer, Rahman Nansel, were unsuccessful, as messages and calls to his phone went unanswered at the time of filing this report.
The Gazzette/Akelicious.net
