The hunt for gunmen who tried to kidnap the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Young Shall Grow Motors, which started since 2013 came to head this year.
The gunmen on August 28, 2013, attacked and attempted to kidnap the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ‘The Young Shall Grow Motors,’ Chief Vincent Obianodo. Three members of the gang are presently in the custody of the SpecialAnti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command. The trio have been identified as Victor Aminalechi, Kingsley Chukwuma and Nnamdi John. But two of them, Aminalechi and Chukwuma, pointed fingers at their partner, Nnamdi, insisting that he was a member of the dreaded gang that carried out the attack. Continue...
While accusing Nnamdi, they denied knowing Nnamdi back then. They, however, claimed that Nnamdi narrated the incident to them after he joined their robbery gang. Nnamdi too has also denied ever taking part in the kidnap of the Young Shall Grow CEO.
The police said that Chukwuma, Animalechi and Nnamdi were part of those terrorising Lagos and Ogun states. They also allegedly used to rob in Benin Republic. Aminalechi and Chukwuma were arrested in separate incidents of kidnapping and armed robbery. They told detectives that Nnamdi, armourer of their gang, told them that he and another gang, in 2013, attempted to kidnap the CEO of Young Shall Grow Motors.
The confession and subsequent revelation of Nnamdi’s past, made the police to know that Nnamdi was part of the suspected shooters of Obianodo they had been hunting for since 2013.
On the fateful day that the suspected assassins swooped on Obianodo, four persons, including a police corporal, were killed. The victims were a police corporal, a driver and two suspected assassins. Obianodo, who was shot on the hand during the gun duel, was saved by policemen attached to him. The gunmen trailed the transporter as he left office, until he reached his home at 4th Avenue, Festac, before they launched the surprise attack on him. The assassins were, however, shocked when the police fought to keep bullets from hitting the CEO.
When the smoke from the blazing guns settled, four corpses were on the ground, while the CEO was nursing a bullet wound on his hand. The slain corporal was identified as Ngozi Chijioke. Speaking on the attack, the then state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ngozi Braide, said Obianodo was attacked at 22 Road Festac Town. She said: “The hoodlums opened fire at him and his driver was shot dead.
Obianodo was shot on the hand and the police corporal with him was killed.” According to her, a patrol team heard sporadic gunshots and raced towards the direction the gun sounds were coming from. Braide added that the bandits had also opened fire at the patrol team. She said: “Our men retaliated and the place was like a battlefield. When the dust settled, the police shot dead two of the men and others escaped with bullet wounds.”
Braide said that a Toyota Highlander Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), which the killers came with, was covered with bullet holes, adding that police recovered one AK47 rifle, one AK49 rifle and eight magazines loaded with ammunition. One of the suspects, Chukwuma, a cab driver, was arrested for being part of the gang that kidnapped two prominent businessmen and owners of filling stations in Lagos.
He said: “I was involved in the kidnap of Kings Petroleum and Dapson Chief Executive Officers in Lagos.” Recalling what Nnamdi told him of the aborted kidnap of Obianodo, Chukwuma said: “Nnamdi said that he nearly lost his life in that operation. He said that two members of their gang based in Ghana lost their lives in the gun duel with policemen attached to the CEO. “Nnamdi used to be my friend. We live in the same area at Igando. I have gone on two robbery operations with him. He was part of those who went with us to rob two filling stations. I still remember those of us who went for that operation – Victor, Nnamdi, Friday, IK and I. “We did not succeed in removing money from the two filling stations because the attendants did not leave any.
We also robbed an ATM machine attached to a fast food outfit. We got some money there. “Nnamdi told me that one of his friends who lived in Ghana organised and connected him to three men for the kidnap of the Young Shall Grow CEO in Festac. He told me that the first attempt was not successful. The gang had to regroup for a second operation. Even in the second operation, they lost two men in gun battle with the police and that he narrowly escaped death. Two of the gang members died and a third later died as a result of bullet wounds.”
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