…As 8 students, staff remain in kidnappers den

• Police keep watch over school

By Ayo Alonge

Nine days after five students of the Nigeria Turkish International Colleges and three of their teachers were abducted by gunmen, the police are still maintaining strict surveillance over the entire area. 

Sunday Sun visited the school to monitor activities in the area last week.

On the first day, Sunday Sun observed that the security personnel deployed to keep watch over the school were very strict and would not allow anybody gain access into the premises. “You can only go and come back tomorrow because it is dark already,” said one of the policemen.

The administrators of the school declined requests to speak with Sunday Sun, as they were still traumatized by the abduction of the students and staff of the school. The administrators flatly insisted that they could not comment on such security issue at present time.

On one of the two-day monitoring exercise, the staff were seen being driven out of the premises in a school bus painted turquoise blue, an indication that skeletal work was still going on in the school.

A man, who turned out to be the chief security officer, stopped Sunday Sun  from gaining access into the school premises, maintaining that the premises was out of bounds.

The CSO, said: “I cannot say anything to you now and I cannot even allow you enter the premises either. As you can see, some of our children and teachers were taken away by kidnappers and the environment is now under strict surveillance. Mr Journalist, there is nothing I can say to you and that is because I am not authorised to say anything. Nobody is authorised to say anything to any journalist, not even the Whites. Even when the Commissioner of Police came to visit, journalists were locked outside. The school has released two different press releases and that is what we have to say for now. Thank you,” he said.

Meanwhile, parents have been traumatized by the terrible incident and continue to keep sealed lips over the matter to avoid jeopardizing the safety of the abducted students and staff. A relation of one of the parents, who spoke with Sunday Sun on the phone on condition of anonymity, made a passionate appeal to the kidnappers to release the victims.

The Nigeria-Turkish International School is situated on the Prince Kayode Odedina Crescent, Opic Bus stop, Isheri area in Ogun State. This is an axis where you can hardly find any passerby, let alone any other structure apart from a factory that shares just a fence with the street. The school is about 500 metres away from Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

How General Kakadu was arrested

By Christopher Oji

Since the abduction of students of Babington Macaulay Seminary, Ikorodu, Lagos and other victims such as the Isheri landlords, Ogun State and the Oniba of Iba Land, Oba Goriola Oseni, the Inspector General of Police, Special Intelligence Response Team (SIRT) declared manhunt for suspected kidnap kingpins. 

Among the kidnappers most wanted by the police were TK, Ossy and Philip Joel (aka General Kakadu). TK was later shot dead by Joint Border Task Force, at Seme border while some of his boys, ‘soldiers’ were arrested.

The suspects, during interrogation, confessed that their fallen master, TK and other warlords were initially into oil bunkering, until the government sent soldiers after them,who destroyed their illegal oil business.

Sunday Sun investigation revealed that a suspect, Emma, told the police: “When things became difficult for us, General Kakadu had a meeting with all other kingpins and introduced kidnapping and bank robbery to us.

“He led the attacks on banks at Lekki, FESTAC Town, Lagos and some robberies in Ogun State. We saw reason in his suggestion when we realized that if we did not go into kidnapping and armed robbery, we may die of hunger. So, we went into the business proper.

“We carried out the kidnap of schoolgirls in Ikorodu, Lekki, Isheri, Ogun State and that of Oba Goriola Oseni.”

After the confession of Emma, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris ordered the officer in charge of SIRT, ACP Abba Kyari, to go after Ossy and Kakadu. The police then launched a manhunt for Kakadu and Ossy.

Last Friday, when the news of the kidnap of students and officials of Nigeria-Turkish International Colleges, Isheri, Ogun State broke out, SIRT beamed its searchlight on Ondo, Edo, Delta and Rivers States.

Detectives were dispatched, and with cutting edge technology, efforts of the police paid off, as General Kakadu and his right hand man, Raw, were sighted in a speedboat coming from Rivers State to Delta.

The men were trailed to Warri where they came to enjoy themselves. A police detective told Sunday Sun: “We took them unawares and picked them like chickens.  There were no gunshots fired as they were not armed. At the joint, where we picked them, the operators did not even know how ferocious the guys were. The real name of Raw is Romeo Council.  Although he is 40, he takes instructions from Kakadu who is just 29 years.

The police source said: “General Kakadu has confessed that five out of the 32 ‘soldiers’, he controls were among those who abducted the schoolgirls and officials of Nigeria Turkish International Colleges. He has promised to help us secure the release of the victims.”