Operatives of the police’ Intelligence Response Team (IRT) have arrested seven workers of Xinxin Energy Limited for kidnapping and killing their employer’s father, 65-year-old Defa Song, in February.
Xinxin, a company located in Odogbolu, Ogun State, is owned by Hongli Song, a Chinese national.
According to Vanguard Newspaper, the suspects abducted the older Song when he stepped out of his house and demanded a ransom of N50 million to release him a few days later.
Working on a petition written by the company owner to the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, the IRT operatives in Ogun State started a manhunt. Eventually, a vulcaniser and mechanic working for Xinxin, Adelekan Jayeola, 34, admitted he planned the kidnapping alongside seven other employees, including one security guard.
He said Song died in their custody some days after the kidnap after falling sick without proper medical attention. Jayeola said his body was given to fishermen to dispose of before the demand for ransom was made.
“The suspects confessed after they were arrested that they kidnapped the old man and kept him in a house where they fed him with just sausage and soft drinks,” one source told the paper.
“They said four days after he was kidnapped, he attempted to escape and they tied him up but he fell sick and died while his body was given to some fishermen to dispose of.”
Jayeola told journalists he was employed by Xinxin in 2019 and was paid N60,000 every month.
“I worked for them for three months before Mr Song came from China and sacked me because I bought a vehicle with the salary I was earning,” he said.
“Then one of the security men working for the company, known as Israel called me and suggested that we should kidnap the man so that his daughter who owned the company would pay us a huge ransom. I called my younger brother Hamed Jabiri, who also worked in the company and informed him about the plan.
“He bought the idea and invited one Moses, who he said was a cultist, who had guns. This was in October 2019, we held a meeting and planned how we were going to kidnap the man. On 16th February 2020, I was given a Corolla car to repair, and I felt it was a good opportunity. After repairing the car I called my friends; Ade Tayo, Adeniran Dele and Amend and when we got information from the security man that Mr Song had stepped out of his house, we went after him and kidnapped him.”
He narrated that Song was first taken to a bush close his shop and then to the house of “one Morufu.”
“While we were still negotiating, I got a call from the people looking after the man that he was dead,” he continued.
“We then put the man’s corpse in a sack, before putting it in a drum and I drove the vehicle to a riverbank where some firemen were called to take the drum away with the boat.”
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