Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested Mrs. Okereke Olufunmilayo, who organized with others to kidnap her boss, Otunba Abayomi Ajayi Smith, the Director of Rolak Hotel Ijebu Ode and then killed even after collecting N15m ransom.
Police said that Olufunmilayo was arrested alongside her husband, Mr. Larry Adebayo Adewumi and one Mr. Adebowale Sanni.
Ajayi was kidnapped on the 28th of September 2020 at about 7:30 am, at Anifowose Estate igbeba, Ijebu Ode by gunmen.
On receiving the information about the kidnap, men of the Anti-kidnapping unit were then mobilised to commence an investigation, but all efforts to get the victim out of captivity proved abortive, despite the fact that the victim’s family paid N15m as ransom to the kidnappers.
Since then, police operatives have not relented in their efforts to fish out those behind the devilish act.
The efforts of a Superintendent of Police (SP), Taiwo Opadiran, led the team to yield positive results in September this year when they got wind of the plan by the hoodlums to strike again.
This time, the wife and son of Ajayi were their target. Armed with the intel, the police team embarked on technical surveillance, after which one of them was traced to Ikeji Arakeji in Osun State. It was at Osun State that 55 years old Adebowale Sanni was arrested.
During interrogation, Sanni confessed to having been on the trial of Yeye Olusola Roseline Ajayi, the wife of their earlier victim, Ajayi in order to kidnap her, on the order of Larry Adebayo Adewumi the ring leader, whose wife Olufunmilayo happened to be an employee of Ajayi.
Singing like a bird after his arrest, Sanni said: “It was Larry who described the location of the victim’s hotel and his other business outfits to me and instructed that if we succeeded in kidnapping the woman and her son, the two of them must be killed after collecting ransom in order not to leave any trace, just as they did to her husband two years ago.”
The confession of Sanni led to the arrest of Larry’s wife Olufunmilayo who was a manager at the Ajayi’s building materials shops.
Larry himself was arrested three days after and he initially denied having anything to do with the kidnap of Ajayi. However, when he saw Sanni, his accomplice he knew the game was up and allegedly also started singing.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Larry who is an indigene of Ilesha Osun State used to be a fraudster before he graduated from a full-time kidnapping business.
His modus operandi was to scout for a rich victim, after which he would mobilise the gang working for him to go after the such person.
He got full information about Ajayi through his wife Olufunmilayo who was an employee of the man. Further investigation revealed that Larry has two bank accounts that he used to keep money realised from his criminal activities.
In one of the accounts with number 0010913206 domicile in JAIZ Bank, the sum of N34,953,455 was discovered there in, while he has the sum of N4,576,846 in another account with Access Bank.
A 2014 model Toyota Highlander was also recovered from him.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole, who commended his men for painstakingly following the suspects until they were arrested, directed that other members of the gang should be hunted for and brought to book. He also directed that the arrested suspects be charged in court as soon as the investigation is concluded.
