The police at Ifako Police Station in Gbagada, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, have arrested a suspect in connection with an alleged kidnap of eight politicians. The victims, who were said to have been drugged before they were abducted, were said to be ward chairmen of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Bariga Local Council Development Area of Lagos State.
Police sources said the victims were returning from Ibafo in Ogun State, where they were billed to hold a meeting with the chairman of Bariga LCDA, Mr. Akeem Omoyele Sulaimon.
But the chairman, it was gathered, told them on telephone, that the meeting was no longer holding as he was attending another crucial one with the party’s leaders.
The eight kidnapped politicians were in a Nissan Quest van, marked LT 286 AAA. They were found unconscious when their suspected kidnapper was arrested.
Luck ran out on the suspected kidnapper when the vehicle knocked down a commercial motorcyclist at Gbagada roundabout and sped off without waiting to know what happened to the bike rider.
As he sped off, he was pursued by a commuter bus driver who later blocked the suspected kidnapper’s vehicle.
Passersby soon noticed that seven occupants of the vehicle were unconscious while only one, later identified as Elder Emmanuel Otekaye was conscious.
The police were informed and they promptly came and arrested the suspect and took him and the victims to their station at Ifako-Gbagada, where Otekaye told them they were coming from Ibafo after a botched meeting and all of them were ACN ward chairmen in Bariga. He could not, however, explain further what happened before they ended up in the van.
Efforts by our reporter to speak with the suspect in the police cell proved futile at press time.
When P.M.NEWS called the Bariga LCDA chairman, Hon. Sulaiman on phone this morning, he did not pick his call, while he did not reply to a text message sent to him.
—Dedeigbo Ayodeji
Update
Contrary to our story on Friday, that eight politicians were allegedly drugged and abducted in Lagos, the true story is that nobody was drugged or abducted.
The politicians, during a news conference at the Bariga Local Council Development Area of Lagos State at the weekend, said they were not kidnapped as was thought by the police and the public.
Speaking on behalf of the others, at the briefing, Mr. Jimoh Ajibola, Chairman Ward A, Bariga LCDA, said it was carbon monoxide from the exhaust pipe that was broken and kept inside the vehicle they were driving in that led to their drowsiness.
According to Ajibola, they had gone to AM To PM Hotel at Ibafo, Ogun State, where they were supposed to have a meeting with the Chairman of Bariga LCDA, Akeem Sulaimon, on the way forward for grassroots politics in the area.
He said the chairman was not aware of their coming to the hotel but that while they were there, they called him, but was then at a state meeting, adding that because of the bad road in the area, the exhaust pipe of their car got broken and they kept it in the vehicle, while the glasses were wound up and the carbon monoxide in the exhaust pipe circulated in the vehicle.
This, he said, caused their drowsiness and dizziness, adding that nobody drugged or abducted them.
He absolved the council chairman from blame over the incident, saying that since they had the same political affiliation with the politician, he could not have done them any harm.
Another victim, Taiwo Mustapha, the driver of the vehicle, said he was surprised when the police branded him a kidnapper and beat him after striping him.
“I was beaten and stripped naked, while a female police officer even said I should be chained in the cell because they believed I may disappear. I was also affected by the fumes,” he explained.
Contributing, the chaiman of Bariga LCDA, Mr. Sulaiman, said he never suspected any foul play and that the eight politicians were never drugged or abducted, noting that the exhaust pipe kept inside their vehicle led to their drowsiness, which made it to appear as if they had been drugged.
According to him, many people had lost their lives by inhaling carbon monoxide, saying this was capable of making them drowsy.
“When I got to the scene, I said the only thing that could have made hem drowsy was the carbon monoxide which they may have inhaled and this was confirmed.
“The driver is one of the ward chairmen in Bariga and not a kidnaper, while his colleagues were not drugged or poisoned.
According to their explaination, when they put the exhaust pipe in the vehicle, they noticed some itching in their eyes and some of them passed out,” he stated.
The chairman said he had no scores to settle with the victims as they were his political children and that they had been visiting the hotel several times before the day of the incident, adding tha he had given a standing order that any time they went there, they should be given free accommodation and food, among others, which, he said, has been happening for several years. “I did not know they were at the hotel because I was at a state meeting at Oriental Hotel. They said that as the local government election is around the corner and with several aspirants coming to seek their support, they needed to see me to know who they should give their support. That was why they wanted to see me,” the council chief, fondly called Oris, explained further.
