Three brothers Joy Ramond, 19, Peace Ramond, 24, and Ayomide Ramond, 16, as well as their suspected accomplice, Akinseye Oluwayomi, 18, have been arrested for kidnaping the 6-year-old daughter of their Church member.
The members of Jehovah Witness Church, Oba-Ile in Akure, Ondo State, were arrested after one Afolabi Oladapo reported the matter on Nov. 21. Oladapo reported that his daughter, Jamama, was kidnapped during Church service by unknown people. She was however, released on November 22, after the payment of N720,000.
Shortly after the payment of the ransome, a team of policemen stormed the venue where the ransom was paid and rounded up the four suspects while exhuming the money that had been buried in an uncompleted building.
Speaking to newsmen, Joy, one of the siblings, confirmed that the victim was a daughter of their Church’s member, but claimed that they took her home “to warn and scare her, and not to kidnap her”.
“I have always seen the girl running out of the Kingdom Hall whenever we are having our meeting; that day, I was coming from my working place and saw her outside the hall around 7 p.m.
I asked her where she was going to, and warned her to be careful so as not to be kidnapped. I later decided to take her home from where I called the parents to inform them that the girl was with me.
That particular night I could not reach the parents on phone, but I got them the next morning and the mother came to pick the girl. I decided to scare her because I learned that she is the only girl in the family and was being pampered by the parents.
I kept her to scare her so as to discourage her from straying around. It may be another person that called them and fabricated the kidnap story so as to dupe them,” she claimed.
