Teenager arrested for kidnap of minor in Edo

Police in Edo have 19-year-old Tajudeen Igikalo for allegedly kidnapping a 16-year-old girl in Edo state.

The suspect was arrested by the Anti-kidnapping and Cybercrime Unit of the command at his residence in Egba community on the Benin-Auchi road.

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Speaking with journalists in Benin, the state  Commissioner of Police, Phillip Aliyu Ogbadu, said the suspect was arrested after a complaint from the victim’s mother.

He said the Anti-kidnapping and Cybercrime Unit received a report from the victim’s mother alleging that her daughter left home for school on March 25, 2021 but did not return home.

“On March 27, the victim’s mother received a telephone call from one Tajudeen Igikalo that her daughter has been kidnapped and that she has to pay the sum of N3 million through a provided account number before her daughter can be released.

He said the suspect threatened to kill the girl or sell her to Fulani herdsmen if her mother refused to pay the ransom.

According to him, the victim’s mother paid N550,000 into a bank account number made available by the kidnappers.

Ogbadu explained that police through hi-tech intelligence and a painstaking investigation arrested the suspect and rescued the victim at his residence on March 30, adding that the suspect has confessed to the crime.

He said the investigation is on to arrest other members of the gang.

Items recovered from the suspect are two laptops, generating set, an industrial standing fan bought from the proceeds of the ransom paid as well as  N220,000 in cash.