Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command have nabbed two brothers: Ayomide Babatunde and Gbenga Babatunde, for allegedly kidnapping a woman and her son for ritual purposes.
The development was confirmed by the Command’s spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement he issued on Friday.
Oyeyemi said the Babatunde brothers were in the early hours of December 30, 2022 arrested by men of the Ogun State Police Command for kidnapping a woman and her nine-year-old son for ritual purposes.
The suspects were arrested following information received by operatives at Oja Odan Divisional Police Headquarters that the two brothers were negotiating on phone to sell a human being either in parts or alive, depending on how the buyer wants it, for money making ritual.
The supposed buyer, one Jacob Olorunto, then informed the Baale of the community about the intention of the suspects.
The Baale in turn informed the police.
The supposed buyer was advised by the police to play along with them in order to save the would-be-victims.
On December 27, 2022, the suspects called Olorunto and informed him that they have two human beings, a woman and her male child for sale.
They negotiated and settled for N600,000 as the price for the two persons.
On December 29, 2022, one of the suspects, Ayomide Babatunde, went to Ilaro and lured his 45-year-old woman friend, Taye Oluwole, to follow him to Oja Odan with her nine-year-old son, Remilekun Oluwole, in order to celebrate New Year with his father.
The woman innocently agreed to follow him.
While on the trip, they stopped to pick the second suspect, Gbenga Babatunde.
The two suspects from there, took the victims to Igbo Obe area ofOja Odan to meet Olorunto, the supposed buyer, but they were rounded up by policemen in collaboration with some youths in the area at about 12:30 midnight, while the woman and her son were rescued.
The two suspects have confessed to the commission of the crime.
The Command’s Commissioner, CP Lanre Bankole, has ordered that the suspects be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation and diligent prosecution.