According to the report from Vanguard, a suspected leader of a kidnapped gang, Gift Ogbo explains that on the evening of March 13, 2024, the gang embarked on their first kidnapping operation, stealing a Mazda 323 car from a local taxi driver to use as their getaway vehicle. He says while scouting for victims, they encountered a couple in a Volkswagen Touareg car and forced them into the backseat at gunpoint.
He says due to traffic congestion, the wife managed to escape from the vehicle. He states while enraged, he shot the husband in the thighs and the gang drove off with him.
He said, "We went on the first mission on March 13, 2024, at about 8.45 p.m. We snatched a red Mazda 323 from a local taxi driver to use as an operational vehicle. On that same evening, we met a man and his wife who parked their car in front of a doctor’s office at Nkpolu. We ordered them out of their Volkswagen Touareg, pushed them into the back seat of the car, and drove off with them, abandoning the stolen Mazda.
But on the way to our hideout, there was traffic. While contemplating an alternative route, the woman jumped out of the car. In anger, I shot her husband in both thighs, and we sped off. We took him to a compound in Eleme, took his gold chain, gold wristwatch, his phone, and wife’s phone which she left. We used his ATM card to withdraw N530,000."