Emmanuel Arigidi, one of the abductors of the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary schoolgirls arrested by the Lagos police, says they did not rape or otherwise physically assaulted the girls. Arigidi could not explain their motivation to forcefully enter the school premises and kidnap the three girls.
The kidnapper said they approached the school and escaped via canoes at the edge of Adama creeks. Arigidi was apprehended by the police during a nighttime rescue operation. A source within the Lagos State Police Command says the kidnapper was nabbed when he came out to buy food. Also arrested were two suspects who helped the kidnappers register the SIM card they used to contact the victims’ parents. Following Arigidi’s arrest, the father of one of the gang members was summoned to talk to the kidnappers and warn them about the impending aerial police attack.
The suspects, sensing there was nothing they could do but release the girls, took the girls to Igbo-Okuta Bridge, Imota and made an anonymous police call. Fatai Owoseni, the Lagos state police commissioner who was stationed at the area for the night, stormed the bridge and carried the girls away to safety. The girls have since been reunited with their parents and underwent medical tests. Timilehin Olosa, Tofunmi Popoolaniyan and Deborah Akinayo were kidnapped from a classroom in the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School on February 29. The abductors, about 15 heavily armed men, reportedly dug a hole under the fence surrounding the school, started sporadic shooting and overpowered the security personnel on the premises. They escaped through the school fence together with the hostages.
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