The Nigerian Police says it has arrested five of the suspected eight abductors of the former secretary to the Federal Government, while the balance of N800,000 from the alleged N5 million ransom paid by the family was also recovered.
The Police said he suspects will soon be arraigned in court, after the investigative team set up by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, concludes investigation.
The suspects were picked from Ekiti, Niger and Ondo States.
A security sources who declined to be named, based on the sensitivity of the case denied peculations that the kidnap was an ethnic affair, even as the source revealed that some Fulani herdsmen were actually among those who took part in Falae’s kidnap.
The source, who described the abductors as hardened criminals, said that the motorcycle used by the kidnappers is now in the custody of the Police.
He confirmed that N5million was paid as ransom to the kidnappers before Falae was released and that negotiations on how the ransom was paid, was actually carried out in Abuja, by the prime suspect, even as the source said that the money was withdrawn from one of the new generation banks in Akure (name withheld).
The day the money was withdrawn, September, 26, which was the same day Falae regained his freedom from his abductors, was clearly stamped on money wraps paid as ransom, it was gathered.
However, the source said apart from Fulani herdsmen who participated in the deal, investigators are suspicious of inside collaborators who they are now going after as the police believe the herdsmen would not have successfully carried out their plans without assistance from an insider.
Falae, a chieftain of the Pan- Yoruba group, Afenifere and National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was abducted on Monday, September 21, at his Ilado farm along Igbatoro Road, Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State.
He was however, released on Thursday, September 24, after the family reportedly paid the sum of 5-million Naira.
The breakthrough was said have been co-ordinated by operatives of the IGP Special Intelligence Response team who were deployed from Abuja to track and fish out the abductors. According to the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Femi Joseph, Falae’s kidnap was being handled by the IGP, Solomon Arase.
Culled from Daily Sun
