A 38-year-old suspected leader of a kidnap gang, Ismaila Ebenezer, who was said to have impersonated as a personnel of the Nigerian Army, has been arrested in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.
Arrested with Ebenezer are Hillary Nwoha, 40; Iwuagwu Joseph, 33; and Iwuanyanwu Ifeanyi, 60.
The police said that one pump action rifle was recovered from the gang.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, who paraded the suspects, said that on January 6, 2019 at about 4pm, operatives of the command attached to the Anti-Cultism unit, while on routine patrol in Ikorodu, intercepted a Toyota Camry saloon car with four occupants.
Edgal said that during preliminary interrogation, Ebenezer identified himself as a serving soldier. But investigation, the police Commissioner added, revealed that the suspect was actually the leader of a kidnap gang that had been terrorising residents of Ikorodu and its environs.
He also told journalists that the command had arrested a total of 23 suspected cultists in various parts of the state and recovered 32 live cartridges from them.
