A Geologist, No, A Kidnapper!

Omotayo Mobolaji Johnson

The Marvel Akpoyibo-led Lagos State Police Command smashes a high profile kidnap gang
By Godwin Njoku
What would make a Geologist who works in an oil company like Chevron, earns over one million Naira a month, and whose wife is an accountant in an oil and Gas company, take to a crime as obnoxious as kidnapping? That is the question the Lagos State Police Command, led by its Commissioner, Marvel Akpoyibo, is seeking an immediate answer to.
Omotayo Mobolaji Johnson is young, and good looking. He is also rich. Aside from his high profile job at Chevron where he earns a whopping N1.2 million a month, he owns one of the best Hotels, in Ibadan, Oyo State – allegedly, a 4-star hotel. He also owns a very big farm. In terms of being comfortable, therefore, he is very comfortable. So, why would he self-destruct? Why would he, allegedly, sponsor the kidnap of a silver spoon kid?
The life of Omotayo Mobolaji Johnson, who Chevron has confirmed is their staff, was a dream life. But it inexplicably started to fall apart penultimate week when Intelligence and Under Cover Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command arrested some gruffy looking youngmen, imported to Lagos from the Niger Delta. Their mission, it turned out, was to kidnap the son of the Managing Director of a first generation bank (Names withheld by The Source). The Managing Director’s son runs an Oil and Gas Company which belongs to his parents. Now Omotayo has fallen, finally, into the gutter. So, how did Omotayo fall to this gutter level? What was the temptation? Greed? Vengeance? Or what? Especially, as his wife is an accountant in the company of the would-have-been victim?
Omotayo’s journey to the police cell, with his wife in tow, was sealed on Tuesday June 1. According to Akpoyibo, the Command’s Intelligence Unit intercepted an information to the effect that the stage was set for a high profile kidnap in Lagos Island by a group. Members of the gang whose job is to kidnap the target-victim, the police learnt, have been recruited from the Niger Delta. They had their plan mapped out. The victim was to be kidnapped from his office, during office hours. His photograph had been given to them. His office address, and the make of his car too. They have also been told how to kidnap him. The first thing to do, Omotayo allegedly told them, is to make him lose consciousness. This was to be achieved by injecting him with Halothane and Valium. That, would, for hours, knock the victim off. The destination was, allegedly, Omotayo’s sprawlling farm in Ibadan, where he has a hut built, away from the prying eyes of members of the public. The victim was, therefore, to be kept in the hut. But there would be a problem with the victim’s car, a jeep. The kidnappers were told that his car is fitted with a GMP, and would, therefore, be easily traced by the police. What to do? “If Jonathan Decides to Run…As soon as you kidnap him, raze the car. Reduce it to rubbles.” Omotayo must have had inside information. Otherwise, how did he know that the target victim’s car is fixed with a GMP? So, who gave him that information? His wife? Or, another inside source? Since his vehicle would be useless to them, the would-be-kidnappers were, therefore, given two operational vehicles - an Infinity Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), and a kia sportage, SUV, with registration number, RJ 58 KJA. Both vehicles allegedly belong to Omotayo. With the two vehicles, the recruited kidnappers, whose names were given as Tommy Ebikeme and Edward Anigbhoro visited their would-have-been victim’s office a number of times. They also held several meetings within Lagos. Their meeting places were usually, but not limited to Goat: Hunters Restaurant, Ladipo Kuku Street, Ikeja, and Million Dollar Hotel, Gbagada. Their, alleged sponsor, Omotayo, to hide his true identity had taken an alias – Olumide. The price tag on the would-have-been victim’s head was a whopping N50 million, an amount Omotayo must have thought was chicken feed, considering the profile of the would-be victim, and his parents. Out of the N50 million, the kidnappers were to get N10 million cash on delivery. They, had, indeed, been allegedly given the sum of N250,000 already for logistics.
According to the police, on the orders of Akpoyibo, on interception of the information, a massive manhunt for the suspects was carried out. The office of the target-victim was cased, and completely placed under high-level surveillance mission by the police. It paid off when, hours later, the suspects, including their sponsor, were arrested. But an alleged female accomplice, Anita, working in connivance with Omotayo,and other members of the gang are, according to the police, at large.
Investigations carried out by The Source, however, tell a slightly different story. The would-have-been kidnappers, being JJC’s in Lagos, were completely overwhelmed, and taken aback by the security network in Lagos, especially, in Ikoyi, where the kidnapping was to have taken place. They feared that they may not succeed, and especially, they feared for their lives. Having cased out the would-have-been victim’s office a number of times, and the route they would take out of Lagos to Ibadan, they had a rethink. And, instead tipped off the police of their dangerous mission. Initially, the police thought they were either joking, or had gone crazy. But they stuck to their story, prompting the police to quickly take them into custody.
To confirm their story, the police asked them, during intense interrogation, to call their alleged sponsor (Omotayo), who they only knew then as Olumide, and tell him they had done the job. They did, but told him that it was not possible for them to leave Lagos at the time. They would leave only in the night, they told him. Asked where they were, he was told they were in a restaurant. According to our source, Omotayo did not know that his friends-in-crime were, by then, in the hands of the police, and acting a new script, as written, and directed, by the police. He simply walked into their trap when he came calling at the restaurant.
He was subsequently arrested by the police. His wife, who works as an accountant in the target-victim’s company, was later picked up. Both of them are currently in detention.
In a chance encounter with one of the would-have been-kidnappers, Ebikeme, who was reeking of cigarette smoke, with blood shot eyes, at the Lagos Command Police headquarters, he told The Source: “We didn’t do it because God touched our hearts. We are all human beings. The Security in Lagos is too much. Nobody wants to die, just like that. It would have been very bloody. And, we found out that the Police Commissioner is from Niger Delta like us. We don’t want to make trouble for him.”
Asked for his side of the story, on Tuesday, June 7, when he was paraded before the press, Omotayo Mobolaji Johnson, 36, refused to take any questions. He pleaded: “I have been advised by my lawyers not to say anything. So, I will not say anything.”