The Oyo State Police Command has arrested a 37- year old Olarinde Adekunle for allegedly writing a private university in Oyo town and threatening to kidnapped its students.
Adekunle was also said to have written a similar letter to a new generation bank in the town issuing them a similar threat.
The Commissioner of Police in Oyo State Police Command, Adebowale Williams, said this while parading the suspected kidnappers and other suspects in Ibadan on Monday.
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The CP said Adekunle asked the university to pay N10 million to stop him from abducting three of the university’s students. He was also said to have sent another hand-written letter to a bank in the town to notify the management of his intention to attack the place.
According to him, a Tecno phone was recovered from the suspect.
The CP said, “Preliminary investigations revealed that on Thursday 11/08/2022 at about 0800hrs, members of a notorious kidnapping syndicate sent an ‘’hand-written” note to the management of a private university in Oyo town wherein they threatened to abduct three of its students should the management fail to pay-up N10,000,000 (ten million naira) within a stipulated period.
“The threat as expected, disrupted academic activities within the university, stirring up panic and uncertainty among the university community.
“Basking under the euphoria of what they presumed was a successful scheme, and blinded with greed, they decided to extend a similar (hand-written) notification to a branch office of a new generation bank within Owode area, Oyo with the intention of invading it later in the week.
“Consequent upon the above, discreet forensic based investigations were carried out and this led to the arrest of one Azeez Mufutau ‘M’ whose phone numbers were inscribed on the ‘’hand-written notes’’ sent to both the school management and bank.
“Upon questioning, the suspect confirmed that the phone number on the note was his but denied being the author of the document.
“The investigation further led to the arrest of one Olarinde Adekunle ‘M’ age 37 years, who confessed to being the author the hand-written notes under scrutiny and added that Azeez Mufutau ‘m’ was used as a decoy for the purpose of concealing his direct involvement.”