Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has approved the immediate suspension of the Baale of Shangisha in Magodo, Chief Yusuf Ogundare, for faking his kidnap.

Ogundare and his brother, Mohammed Adams, were paraded during a press briefing at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni; Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem; Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami, and top officials of the Department of State Service.

Ogundare had claimed that he was kidnapped along Centre for Management Development Road in Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area of the State.

His suspension was conveyed in a memo with reference number OLGAS.83/S./Vol.1 dated July 13, 2017 addressed to the Sole Administrator of Ikosi-Isheri LCDA.

The memo, signed by Folami, stated that Ambode has directed Ogundare to stop parading himself henceforth as the Baale of the community till further notice.

Ogundare’s suspension was approved by Ambode moments after the Lagos State Police Command paraded him alongside his Adams for conspiring to fake the alleged kidnap.

Adams, on the fateful day, reported the alleged kidnap incidence to the police.

Speaking while parading the two suspects, Fatai Owoseni said the Command had received the report of Ogundare’s alleged kidnap, and immediately swung into action in collaboration with other security agencies especially the DSS.

Owoseni said luck however ran out on Ogundare when he was apprehended by men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) in Alausa area of the State on July 11 after he was dropped in a suspicious manner by a car which sped off immediately.

Giving details of how Ogundare was apprehended, Owoseni said: “On July 11 at about 10pm, a team of RRS patrol officers working around Alausa had sighted a vehicle drop a male adult in a suspicious manner close by Shoprite along the Secretariat road. The speed with which that car drove off attracted them to that spot and fortunately before they got to the spot, the car had taken off and a quick enquiry revealed that it was the Baale that was allegedly kidnapped.

He said while making reports, Adams had told security agencies that he was with the Baale at CMD Hotel when some people who claimed they wanted to buy land whisked them away and later dropped him, but investigation revealed that he (Adams) was not at any time in the hotel with the Baale but was only at the restaurant of the hotel, and after some minutes, he left, and the wife of the Baale actually drove the Venza car allegedly used to abduct the supposed victim into the hotel.

Owoseni added that after the suspects were confronted with the indisputable facts, they had no choice than to confess faking the kidnap.

The CP said immediately after Ogundare was allegedly kidnapped, Adams went to the community and called the town crier to order the whole community to close shops and markets should not open, an action aimed at inciting members of the community against the State Government.

He said the objective of the suspects was to falsely accuse the Oba of Shangisha as the brain behind the kidnapping, which they indeed did, as a vengeance to him being installed the Oba instead of Ogundare, and also embarrassed the State Government and as well as security agencies for arresting him (Ogundare) when he falsely displayed the plate number of Oba of Shangisha on his car.

Also speaking, Kazeem said it was disheartening that while the state government and security agencies were working round the clock to secure the release of kidnapped students of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, some unscrupulous persons deemed it fit to raise false alarm.