Police alert Nigerians on kidnappers’ new trick

The police in Delta State, South-south Nigeria, have alerted the public on a new trick used by kidnappers to abduct unsuspecting Nigerians.

The police spokesperson in Delta State, Bright Edafe, who posted the alert on his Twitter page on Monday, said kidnappers could possibly use a tricycle to deliberately hit a car just to lure out the occupants of the car.

“Let’s be careful out there, especially when driving. On 29/7/2023 the kidnapped victim noticed that a tricycle hit (his) car from behind, he came down to check only for the occupants of the keke to kidnap him with a gun and took him in his own car,” Mr Edafe, a deputy superintendent of the police, said in his post on the microblogging platform.

He said the suspected kidnappers forced their victim to transfer N700,000 ransom to them.

A police patrol team on a stop-and-search operation intercepted the suspects while they were inside the car at a road junction, waiting for more money from their victim, Mr Edafe said.

“They jumped down from the vehicle in a bid to escape, one of them bearing the firearm was neutralised and the victim who was blindfolded was rescued,” the police spokesperson said without disclosing the victim’s details.

Mr Edafe uploaded on Twitter, photos of the slain suspect, the recovered car and rifle.

A video clip trending on several WhatsApp group shows an unidentified man narrating how some unknown person pelted a fresh egg on his car windscreen while he was driving.

The man said the fluid from the egg would have spread to every part of the windscreen, blurred the windscreen and prevented him from driving further if he had switched on his windscreen wiper.

He said he had driven on until he got to a location he felt was safe and secure.

“Nobody know whether dem be kidnappers or thieves,” the man said in Pidgin English in the two minutes, 28 seconds video.

“Dem say na two ways dem dey take kidnap people for inside GRA or dem rob person. If you dey drive de go, you just see say motor come hit you for back, then you go come park, want come dey observe wetin dey happen, from there dem go come. If you dey drive for inside GRA, motor come hit you, just dey drive dey go.

“Then the other one na him be dis one wey dem do me this evening,” he said.

Abduction for ransom is now one of the dominant crimes across various Nigerian cities.

Politicians, entrepreneurs, just anyone with good financial worth, including school children are easy targets.