How University Dropouts Planned to Abduct Family Man, Billionaire Femi Otedola

The IG of police, Ibrahim Idris and his Special Intelligence Response Team have aborted plans to abduct Billionaire and father-of-four, Femi Otedola. This was revealed by the ringleader of the kidnappers, 28-years-old Ikechukwu Daniel.

According to reports, the gang members, predominantly Fulani herdsmen, who were behind the kidnap of Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, 70, said they were already finetuning the plan of abducting Otedola when they got arrested.

Daniel, 28, a Biochemistry student who dropped out of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 200 level, was arrested while negotiating for N4m ransom with another kidnapped victim’s family members.

Daniel, from Imo State, said he was born and raised in Kaduna State. Narrating how police frustrated their plans to kidnap Otedola, Daniel said: “We’re perfecting plans to abduct him, before I was arrested.

We narrowly missed abducting him when he attended a function in Ibadan, Oyo State, because of heavy security operatives. I told my gang members that we should go and re-strategize.

There was someone working with him, who brought the job to us. I told my gang members that the first thing I would do to ensure the operation was successful was to carry out spiritual sacrifices to the gods.

The sacrifice was to ensure I defeat Otedola spiritually. You know, a man like him is powerful spiritually. Then get army, DSS and police uniforms, because, without impersonation, there was no way we can get close to him.

The last thing on our list was to ensure we monitor his movements. We were doing this, through our contact, who was close to him. We were supposed to strike on a day that he had a few security men with him.

We were going to achieve this in November; if we succeeded, it would have been my last job. I was planning to demand N2bn. We were however hopeful that he’d negotiate for nothing less than N500m.”

Daniel, who joined the kidnap gang in 2014, was an undergraduate when he started hijacking petroleum tankers. He was arrested in 2012 and sent to prison in Oyo State. There, he met Mohammed Babuga, a Fulani, who eventually led him into kidnapping.