A 32-year-old ex banker, Edet Ekuno, and seven others are currently in the police net for alleged kidnapping, robbery and illegal dealing in arms. Ekuno was the leader of the gang which he formed after he was laid off by a new generation bank for involving in some shady deals. Ekuno, it was learnt, worked with one Hope Okon, an ND 2 Computer Engineering student at a polytechnic in Akwa Ibom; Sunday Samiga, Unagbon Isaiah and other suspects at large, to kidnap unsuspecting well-to-do residents around Lagos and Akwa Ibom states. A decoy team, led by the officer in charge of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad, ASP Abba Kyari, rounded up the suspects at about 2am on March 7 at D2 Hotel in the Ojodu-Berger area, where they were reportedly perfecting plans to kidnap a businessman in Magodo Estate on March 7, 2015. Two locally-made pistols and 18 live cartridges were said to have been recovered from the gang. The former banker confessed to the police that he joined the gang in 2012 to kidnap one of his neighbours working with Chevron. In his words: ""I was laid off by the bank I used to work for. I am also an estate agent and the music minister in a church." "I don’t just know what came over me. The 2012 operation involved a neighbour, but it was not successful. The man shouted for help and we fled with his money and phones." "We were five in that operation. I was given N20,000 from the proceeds. The Magodo operation was my second attempt." "In 2010, in Akwa Ibom, we kidnapped a woman whose daughter is a medical doctor. We released her after her family paid N5m." "My share was N800,000. I used it to keep poultry, but it later collapsed due to poor management." "I was about to go back to Akwa Ibom having exhausted the N50,000 on me when we were arrested."
