Soldiers attached to Operation Delta Safe, a joint task force saddled with ridding Ikorodu and environs of the militants terrorising the area, tracked down and killed one of their most prominent leaders, a militant leader called Ossy Ibori (aka OC) in Ajakpa, Ondo State.
In the operation in which a soldier was killed, Ibori and his gang members were engaged in a gun duel that ended when the militant leader was shot dead at about 3 am on May 1, 2017,.
His men fled and dispersed but shortly after, they were said to have come together again under OC’s deputy, a Delta State indigene in his late 30s called Oniwei America.
Police sources told newsmen that the death of OC marked the point America, a more aggressive and far more violent gang leader, took over the kidnapping and armed robbery operations of his former boss.
The police source said he now controls three different teams of kidnappers and armed robbers, whose operations span, Ogun, Ondo and Lagos states.
Much of what is known about America till date were pieced together through the accounts of his men, who have been arrested in the last few months by the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team.
Days after the kidnap of school pupils of the Igbonla Model College, Epe, Lagos, the IRT arrested three suspects – Endurance Egelu, aka Jubby, 25; Stanley Irabomini, aka Powei, 25; and Endurance Bentel, 24 – all Edo State indigenes.
It did not take long for the suspects to confess that they were members of America’s robbery and kidnapping teams.
But it was not the first time the police would be hearing about America, The Punch reports.
A source involved in the ongoing investigation on America and efforts to track him down, told newsmen that it first became apparent that he was a bigwig in the criminal underworld after the kidnap of three teachers and three pupils of the Nigerian Turkish International College, Ogun State in January, 2017.
Before the abducted staff and students were released, America was paid millions of naira in ransom.
But in the course of investigation, America’s family members were taken in for questioning by the police.
“We arrested his wife. We also arrested his mother-in-law,” our source, who described the suspect as an Ijaw man, said.
As more people connected to America were being apprehended by the police, more details emerged as to the scale of his criminal activities.
According to a report by The Punch any major robbery or kidnap in Ogun and Lagos states in the last few months is traceable to America.
His most recent work was the abduction of six schoolchildren of Igbonla Model College, Epe, Lagos.
