Police arrest 3 siblings for allegedly kidnapping church member’s daughter in Ondo
Three siblings have been arrested for allegedly scheming a plan to kidnap a church member’s 6-year-old daughter for ransom in Ondo.
24-year-old Peace Ramond, along with his 19 and 16-year-old siblings, Joy and Ayomide, as well as an 18-year-old accomplice Akinseye Oluwayomi, took the baby during church service on Wednesday, November 21.
The case was reported to the police by the baby’s father, Afolabi Oladapo, a member of the Jehovah Witness Church at Oba-Ile in Akure.
The suspects were said to have released Jamama to her family the following day, Thursday, after allegedly collecting N720,000 as ransom.
Police were said to have immediately swooped in on the suspects at the venue where the ransom was paid. The suspects had allegedly buried the sum in an uncompleted building.
A member of the gang, Joy, claimed they didn’t plan to kidnap her, but only took her away to “warn and scare her”.
“I have always seen the girl running out of the Kingdom Hall whenever we are having our meeting; that day, I was coming from my working place and saw her outside the hall around 7 p.m,” he is quoted as saying to newsmen.
“I asked her where she was going to, and warned her to be careful so as not to be kidnapped. I later decided to take her home from where I called the parents to inform them that the girl was with me.”
He said he was able to reach the little girl’s parents the following morning and her mother arrived shortly after to pick her.
“I decided to scare her because I learned that she is the only girl in the family and was being pampered by the parents.
“I kept her to scare her so as to discourage her from straying around. It may be another person that called them and fabricated the kidnap story so as to dupe them,” she claimed.
It is still unclear how the alleged ransom was received by the suspects.
