Police in Oyo State have arrested no fewer than 12 suspects allegedly connected with cases of kidnapping at Onigari in Oluyole Local Government Area on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Commissioner of Police in the state, Ngozi Onadeko, paraded the suspects on Thursday at the Command’s Headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan.

The command also paraded 20 other suspects involved in alleged conspiracy, armed robbery, murder, and impersonation as an army officer.

Onadeko said that owing to the rising cases of kidnapping on Lagos/Ibadan expressway and murder at Onigari area of Oluyole Local Government Area on January 7, the command immediately swung into action, deploying intelligence and tactical assets.

She said that the deployment at 3.30 p.m., on January 14, led to the arrest of one of the suspects, known as Maku-Maku, a suspected member of the kidnapping gang that had been terrorising travellers on the Lagos/Ibadan expressway.

The CP said that further investigation led to the arrest of other suspects while some were still at large.

Onadeko said the suspects confessed to having carried out the kidnapping operations that led to the death of one Oluwatosin Anwajoye, 45, at Onigari area of Lagos/Ibadan expressway on January 7.

In an interview with the journalists, one of the suspects, a commercial motorcyclist, confessed to being the one supplying the gang members food and other items.

He said that N10,000 was paid to him for each errand he ran for the gang.

The commercial motorcyclist said the kidnappers promised to buy him a new motorcycle after their operation.

A victim of the gang, Folahan Olaleye, told journalists that his family was coming from Lagos on December 24, 2021, at 8.00 p.m., when they were attacked and kidnapped at Onigari area on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The victim said he was shot while his daughter and pregnant wife were beaten.

He said his wife and daughter were later released, but he was held in captivity and a ransom was demanded from his family.

Mr Olaleye said N2,750,000 ransom was eventually paid before he was released by his captors.

NAN