Anuoluwapo, 21-year-old a fashion designer and daughter of a labourer was kidnapped on September 4, 2011 at Peace Estate, Idimu, Lagos, after receiving a call from a resident concerning a business proposition.
The kidnappers said unless her family paid N500,000, Anuoluwapo would not be released. Since
then, she has remained in captivity of the kidnappers. Her mother, Risikatu, said, “On September 4, my daughter received a call from one Mama Sunday, a food vendor on our street.
“Anuoluwapo is a fashion designer and Mama Sunday told her that a church in the area needed to
sew clothes for about 80 people. She was delighted and informed us that she had a meeting with Mama Sunday and she left at 6pm.
“When it started getting late, we decided to call her on the phone but it was switched off. It was then that we began to worry because it was not in her character to stay out late. When it was 8:30pm, we decided to go to Mama Sunday’s house to know if she was there.”
Risikatu said when she and her husband got to the house, they were told that Anuoluwapo was last seen with another resident popularly known as Alhaji Kazeem, adding that the Alhaji informed them that he had no idea where she was. She said,
“When we went to Mama Sunday’s house, she was not at home. So, we called her on the phone
but she initially denied seeing my daughter that day. However, she later said she saw my daughter with the Alhaji.
“When we asked the Alhaji of our daughter’s whereabouts, he said he did not know but added that
he had seen her the previous day and offered to give her a ride home but she declined, saying she had a meeting with Mama Sunday.”
Risikat said when she accused Mama Sunday of complicity in the kidnap, the community leaders
intervened and advised that the police should be involved.
Although she heeded the advice and went to Idimu Police Station, Risikatu said she was not satisfied
with the manner in which investigation was carried out.
“After calling Mama Sunday and Alhaji for questioning, they were released immediately and the
police continued to delay the investigation,” she alleged.
Risikatu said Anuoluwapo’s phone remained switched off for some days until September 6 when a
call put to her line went through around 1am.
She said, “On September 6, some youths in the area called her phone at midnight and surprisingly, a man picked up the phone, demanding that they bring N500,000 to secure my daughter’s release.
“The youth claimed they heard my daughter screaming in the background and when they realised
that the kidnappers were serious, they decided to negotiate with them.”
It was learnt that when the youth negotiated with the kidnappers, they reached a
compromise and agreed on N100,000. However, when the youth went with the ransom, the
kidnappers refused to show up at the agreed place.
She said, “The kidnappers instructed them to come to Tapade junction, Oyinlola Street at 3am to pay the ransom but when the kidnappers sensed that the youth were trying to play a fast one on them, they
refused to show up.
“Whenever we call the kidnappers on my daughter’s line every night, they would ask for the money despite our constant pleas that we have no such money. They further threatened to hurt Anuoluwapo if we involved either the police or vigilance group.”
Risikatu told our correspondent that after series of negotiations and pleas, the kidnappers reduced the
ransom to N35,000 and asked her husband, Tajudeen, to meet them at a specific location.
She said, “On the kidnappers’ instruction, my husband went to meet them at an abandoned two-
storey building near our street at 3rd Avenue around 1am but did not see them. Tajudeen waited there for over two hours and kept calling them on the phone.
The phone was ringing but no one picked it.
“Tajudeen then went back home but before he could settle down, the kidnappers called him again,
directing him to take the money to another location, at Iyana-Oluwaga.”
Risikatu said that the kidnappers kept changing locations on the suspicion that the police were on their trail. They later told Tajudeen to drop the money at a specified location and told him to leave.
“When Tajudeen asked the kidnappers where they had dropped off his daughter, they said she was by a mosque in the area. On getting to the mosque, and searching the entire area for hours, he still did not see Anuoluwapo. That was when we realised that the kidnappers had just pulled a fast one on us,” she said. She added that after that day, the kidnappers’ phone number had remained switched off.
While crying profusely, Risikatu said she feared the worst had happened because her daughter had been held by the kidnappers for more than a month. She further pleaded with members of the public to come to her aid.
“I do laundry for people. My husband is unemployed and I have five children. I do not have any money to pay kidnappers or the police” she said.
Risikatu however said she suspected that the kidnappers were members of her community because
they seemed to know so many things about them.
She said, “When we asked one of our neighbours who works at a telecommunications company to try to trace the call for us, he said he was called by the kidnappers that if he rendered us any assistance, they would deal with him.”
A close police source told our correspondent that the case had been transferred to Area M Command and that investigations are still on.
The police officer however blamed the parents for negotiating with the kidnappers without the consent
of the police.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, confirmed the incident, adding that investigations were still ongoing.
Source: Punch
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