Suspects Confess to Abduction of Adelabu’s Sister and Twin Sons

Fresh details have emerged on how suspected members of a kidnap gang allegedly abducted the sister of former Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, Mrs Olaide Busayo Adegoke, and her twin sons in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Sources said the suspects arrested by operatives of the Force Intelligence Department-Intelligence Response Team (FID-IRT) and other tactical teams of the Oyo State Police Command had played different parts in the operation carried out on June 3.

The alleged gang leader, Adewale Abolarinwa, aka Oloro, Segun Balogun, aka Alawaye and Dare Oyedele, aka Solution were arrested.

The victims were freed last Saturday from their captors’ den at Lako community on Ayegun-Olomi Road, Ibadan, on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu.

Balogun, a commercial driver at Iwo Road Motor Park, Ibadan, was said to have confessed that he used his driving skills to convey the gang members during the operation.

He said he had known Oloro for over 10 years through the transport union before he was later approached to join the kidnap plot, according to Nigerian Tribune.

“Oloro asked me if Adelabu still had a mother, I said yes. I told him where she was living and he asked me. “He said I should take him to the place,” Balogun said.

After Oloro showed Oloro the house, Oloro said the gang leader told him he was going to kidnap either Adelabu’s mother or a child from the family.

“He said he was broke. He asked me to join him too, pointing out that I was also broke and just driving without making much money. He promised good pay and I said I would go with him. “My job was to drive the car used in the kidnap,” he added.

Balogun said the gang swung into action on June 3 after Oloro called him a day earlier to inform him of the operation.

He said four of them were in the vehicle used for the operation, and added that three others were masked as he drove.

Oloro saw the car that was being targeted and told me to follow it and then told me to swerve and block the front of it. “He and two others got out and shoved the mother and the children into our operational car,” he said.

The other suspect, Oyedele, popularly called Solution, was said to be an automobile electrician who was known around Orita Challenge, Podo and nearby areas of Ibadan.

The solution allegedly did surveillance for the gang before the kidnap, police sources said.

The gang allegedly started planning the abduction on May 5 by watching the compound where the twins lived, the school they attended and the vehicle used to transport them.

Solution is said to have discussed the children’s school as expensive and well equipped in intercepted communications, and provided information on the whereabouts and movements of the family.

Solution, who claimed to be 43 and from Ishara Remo in Ogun State, admitted knowing Oloro for about a year.

He said, “Oloro was initially a member of the OPC, but was expelled after the kidnap case he had back then. I heard about him through OPC members. He later moved to Lagos but used to visit Ibadan.”

He said Oloro later invited him into the gang and told him to follow him around in his car during movements he did not fully understand at first.

On June 2, Oloro drove a Toyota Corolla to his house at Podo with two pump action guns in the vehicle.

“Oloro, Kelechi and I used masks during the operation. Alawaye sat in the car, mask off. Oloro handed me an axe to hold. Solution said the two pump-action guns, Kelechi and himself, were holding.

He said Oloro was said to have broken the side glass of the vehicle of the victims before the woman and children were transferred into the gang’s car.

Balogun first came under suspicion when operatives searching for Oloro contacted him on account of his known relationship with the alleged gang leader, police sources said.

He was reportedly seen trying to delete information from his phone while talking to the operatives.

The officers allegedly checked the phone and discovered messages mentioning an alleged gun purchase that involved Oloro.

Balogun was arrested, but his alleged involvement in the kidnap was said to have been fully uncovered after Oloro was caught.

During the rescue operation, police said some suspects were arrested with two others neutralised.

Further checks reportedly led operatives to Solution’s property where a pump-action gun was allegedly recovered, bringing the total number of guns recovered from the gang to three.

It was also reported that Oloro was found with several charms, some of which were said to have been recovered from his car.

The alleged gang leader had refused to speak since the police briefing by the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Ayodeji Abimbola, sources said.

Oloro was paraded earlier in September 2022 by the Oyo State Police Command after his arrest alongside other suspected members of a kidnap gang.

He is said to have confessed to involvement in previous kidnapping and car snatching.

He was later arraigned and remanded in prison but it was not clear how he secured bail before allegedly returning to crime.