By Evelyn Usman
They came from Agadagba community in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State. Not to trade. Not to visit. They came to Lagos to kidnap.
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And as you read this piece, the Lagos State Police Command has apprehended three members of a cross-state kidnap syndicate that abducted a businesswoman in the Ijedodo area of the state, collected N21 million as ransom before her release.
The suspects: Semi Buawe, 35; Oluwatomi Obosi, 37; and Bamure Telemowei, were traced to their hideout in Agadagba community in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State by the command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit.
The gang’s leader, identified only as ID, was said to still be at large and alleged to be connected to kidnapping incidents across multiple states, police sources said.
The victim, whose identity has been withheld, was held captive for three days in a bush in the Ijedodo area before her family paid the ransom, which included N21 million, a bottle of schnapps, a power bank, and one kilogram of frozen turkey.
How they operated
According to police investigations, the gang planned its operations in Ondo State, travelled to Lagos for the abduction in April 2026, and returned to the same Ondo community immediately after collecting the ransom, a pattern police said highlights the increasingly cross-border nature of kidnapping in the South-West.
Suspect opens up
Speaking after his arrest, 35-year-old Buawe, a sawmill worker by trade, admitted participating in the abduction. He revealed that he had been involved in kidnapping since 2010 but had attempted to leave the trade.
Hear him: “I am an indigene of Agadagba in the Ese-Odo Local Government area of Ondo State. I worked at a saw mill in Ondo State. I was staying in Lagos before but I returned to my hometown to be doing business there.
“I have been into kidnapping since 2010 but ID and I were not in the same gang. He came to me in April that he had a job in Lagos and that he wanted me to be part of the operation. Initially, I declined because I had decided that I wanted to quit kidnapping. He kept calling and begging me. Later he brought some of his friends to beg me and I agreed to join them. They said they needed my experience of the knowledge of Lagos, since I have lived in Lagos.
“When we came to Lagos, we had no specific target. ID just said that we were going to Ijedodo to look for any rich man. We were walking, when ID suddenly stopped in front of a very beautiful duplex. He concluded that the owner of the house must be very rich.”
The abduction
“He went inside the house with one other member of the gang, Alfred, while Oluwatomi and I watched over the environment. Later he came out with a woman and we headed straight into the bush in the same area.
“While we were about entering the bush, the woman started shouting for help and a man, who was walking by, tried to intervene on her behalf but ID brought out a gun and shot into the air. The man went on his knees and started begging us. I was almost running away but ID cautioned me,” he said.
N21m ransom
Continuing, Buawe said: “When we got into the bush, ID was the one negotiating with the woman’s family. He asked her if she was the owner of the house and ordered her to call her people.
“After two days in the bush, ID and two others left the bush and kept the woman with Tommy and myself. The woman refused to eat the food that we gave her. On the third day, she agreed to eat biscuit and that was the only thing she ate in three days.
“When we exhausted the foodstuffs that we had with us, we checked her phone and transferred one hundred and fifty thousand naira to a POS operator around Ijedodo and we collected it in cash from a POS.”
On the third day of the woman’s captivity, the gang, according to him, collected N21 million ransom.
He said: “ID came back and told us that he had negotiated with the woman’s family. They initially offered N16 million. ID rejected it. We were even telling him to collect it like that but he eventually collected N21 million, a bottle of Eagle schnapps, a power bank and one kilogram of frozen turkey.
“We collected the ransom in dollars. I got N1.5 million. I did not even use the money for any tangible thing because the amount was small.
“I collected the woman’s phone. She had two phones, I collected one of it.
When we got to Ondo State, I had a disagreement with ID. I told him I didn’t want to go with him again. He thought I wanted to set him up. I gave the woman’s phone to a Hausa bureau de change operator and he is yet to pay me,” he said in regret.
Love pushed me into crime – Suspect
For the second suspect, Oluwatomi Obosi, his descent into the underworld began not with a gun, but with a mother’s prayer and a grandfather’s advice, a desperate quest for love that would lead him straight into the arms of a kidnapper’s den.
With a voice heavy with regret, 37-year-old Tommy, as he is fondly called, said: “Sometime in April, I was with my girlfriend at our house in Ikorodu, when my mother told me to be very serious with relationship. She advised me to pick a lady and marry, so that I can be responsible.”
His grandfather, according to him, reinforced the message, urging him to return to their hometown in Agadagba, Ondo State, to look for a decent girl and look for money to do proper marriage.
In Agadagba, Tommy said he found a lady and proposed, but she insisted he must first secure the consent of her elder sister, a condition that would prove catastrophic.
He said: “It was in the process that I was introduced to ID, who was the leader of our gang. He was the husband of my girlfriend’s sister.
“When ID discovered I lived in Lagos, he told me about the kidnapping plan. He said he wanted me to be translating Yoruba language to other members of the gang, whenever the gang abducted a Yoruba victim.
“I only agreed to follow them for the operation because I needed money to marry as soon as possible.
“I received N2.5 million, which was enough to start my new life. But when we got to Agadagba, ID collected N200,000 from all of us.”
Today, the man who only wanted to make his mother proud and honour his grandfather’s wish sits in a police cell, his dreams of marriage shattered and future uncertain.
Police speak
Confirming the arrests, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Adebisi, said the command had intensified efforts to apprehend the fleeing gang leader.
The suspects, she added, were currently in police custody and would be charged to court upon the conclusion of investigations.
The police urged members of the public with useful information about the fleeing gang leader, ID, to report to the nearest police station.
“There will be no hiding space for criminals in Lagos State,” Adebisi said.
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