Operatives of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Special Squad 1, have uncovered the true identity of one of the nine billionaire kidnappers that were killed during their operation at the popular Ladipo market in Lagos last month.
Before now, only the identities of one of their kingpins and popular nollywood actor/producer, Prince Henry Ode, based in Port Harcourt, were disclosed, along with about four of his colleagues in the filmmaking industry. They were also victims of the bloody encounter with the police when they struck at Ladipo Market with the intention of kidnapping a wealthy businessman at the market.The latest revelations follow diligent investigations carried out by detectives at the unit led by CSP Kehinde Oni, who discovered that there were no less than 42 case files about the operations of the killer gang in different police stations in Lagos State. According to police sources, it was a startling discovery, and we were shocked when such a large number of case files against the operations of the gang were seen in police stations.Last operation“Our diligent and scientific investigations revealed also that a few days before they struck at Ladipo, they kidnapped a wealthy female owner of a popular supermarket at Ago Okota and kept her for days until she paid N68 million as ransom. When the CCTV in the supermarket was recovered, we saw how one of their informants, who also played such a role at Ladipo Market, entered the supermarket wearing shots.“He exited after ensuring that the coast was clear and alerted other members of the gang led by the sharpshooter identified later as Uzoamaka, and they entered the supermarket with their guns and succeeded in kidnapping the female owner. We were able to get the first name of the sharpshooter after they struck at Ejigbo, and while escaping from the scene, his telephone fell down. His photograph was seen on the screen of the phone, and we are still trying to decode the phone.”Sharpest shooter, marksmanPolice sources further revealed that Uzoamaka was described as one of the sharpest shooters and marksmen in the criminal world in Nigeria by some hardened criminals in the police net who narrated his past exploits to the police. He reportedly underwent special training in arms handling and marksmanship in a yet-to-be-known institution. “They said he was well known and admired in the criminal world, but they did not associate him with the spate of kidnappings that were rampant in Lagos State during that period.The first shot at Ladipo“He was also the person who released the first shot when the kidnappers landed at Ladipo that day to carry out the deadly operation. What happened was that we positioned a decoy red car with the intention of properly identifying the kidnappers the moment they arrived at Ladipo Market. We did this in order to ensure that we would not confront the wrong people. When they started approaching the road that led to the office of their target, our man in the decoy car identified their operational vehicles and cleverly used it to block their way, pretending that his car malfunctioned. It was sharpshooter/marksman Uzoamaka who released the first shot with a view to eliminating the owner of the car that blocked their way.Target missed“His bullet perfectly hit the headrest of the decoy car but narrowly missed our man on the steering. It was at that instant that we identified them and started releasing bullets towards their two cars. Remarkably, we discovered from the case files against them that they were using the same two vehicles, a Toyota 4 Runner Jeep and a Lexus 350 SUV, in all their operations in Lagos.”Work is still in progress.So far, detectives are still working very hard to identify the remaining victims of the operation at Ladipo, but it was gathered that suspected members of the families of the victims have continued to evade being associated with their relatives killed during the attempt at Ladipo. “We are sure that very soon we will expose all of them, and whatever they are hiding will be blown open to the world,” the source stated.
