Nigeria Billionaire ‘Escapes Abduction’

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A bid to kidnap Nigeria’s billionaire oil tycoon Femi Otedola for a ransom of about $3m (£2.4m) has been foiled, police say.

A gang of three was arrested for the attempt to abduct Mr Otedola, whose fortune has been listed by Forbes magazine at $1.8bn.

The “mastermind” of the gang was a former university student who was an “IT guru”, while the second suspect was an officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence corps who took “undue advantage of his office to obtain the GSM number and location of their would be victim”, police added in a statement.

A picture taken on May 18, 2006 shows Femi Otedola, head of Zenon Oil, in Lagos, Nigeria.A picture taken on May 18, 2006 shows Femi Otedola, head of Zenon Oil, in Lagos, Nigeria.otedola

The third arreA picture taken on May 18, 2006 shows Femi Otedola, head of Zenon Oil, in Lagos, Nigeria.sted man was the gang’s “marksman and armourer” and claimed he had been dismissed from the army in 2015, police said, adding:

“All the suspects made confessional statements revealing that they had successfully carried out several high profile kidnappings and two AK47 rifles loaded with live ammunition were recovered from them.”

The statement added that investigations were continuing to arrest more members of the gang, and to also probe their other alleged criminal activities.

The arrests were made in June, police added.

It is unclear why details of the attempted abduction have only been revealed now.

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