In July, news filtered in that a movie producer and CEO of Ason-Rich Movie Production, Henry Odenigbo, was one of the nine members of a notorious kidnapping gang killed during an operation in Ladipo, Mushin. PREMIUM TIMES reported that Lagos Police Command’s Special Squad One Team gunned down the gang members who allegedly plotted to abduct wealthy individuals in the state. The police spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, disclosed that the Command had been on the trail of the gang for the past eight months as a result of their numerous kidnapping of wealthy individuals in Isolo, Okota, Ejigbo and Ladipo areas of Lagos State.
The police, however, concealed their identities. Still, its spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, said that four AK-47 rifles, four locally made semiautomatic pistols, nine AK-47 magazines, three walkie-talkies, and two operational vehicles, a black Toyota 4Runner and a blue Lexus RX350, were recovered from the suspects. While their identities were kept under wraps, a filmmaker and actor, Stanley Nwoko, aka Stanley Ontop, posted Odenigbo’s photos on his Instagram alleging that he was the ‘‘ringleader’’ of the kidnap gang, killed in the gun duel with the police.
The Actors Guild, Kanayo O Kanayo, Yul Edochie and other Nollywood practitioners would also dissociate themselves from the slain filmmaker and three different film practitioners. The Guild, in a statement, said the three persons who died in the shootout with the police at Ladipo on Thursday were.