These are indeed evil days and strange things are happening. At the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, eleven suspected criminals who were arrested in the highbrow Lekki area of the state have confessed that they belonged to a vicious gang of homosexuals that kidnap, extort and rape their male victims.

Shockingly, they disclosed that their victims were only healthy-looking males and that they never had anything to do with females during their operations.

Confessions

All the suspects narrated how they joined the gang and how they carried out their atrocities which usually ended with video recordings of their sexual orgies with which they extorted various sums of money from their male victims. One of the suspects who is a practicing lawyer and the oldest member of the gang however tried to cleverly exonerate himself from their devilish acts by saying he was “a bisexual male with feelings for both genders.”

Narrating details of their exploits to Lagos State Commissioner of Police Special Squad led by CSP Kehinde Oni, all the suspects said that they engaged either their fellow gays or unsuspecting victims in any of their apartments situated in the highbrow Lekki, Ajah and Badore axis of the city through a gay app or advertisements acting as estate agents.

According to one of the suspects, Esama Joel, 28, who is a POS operator at Jakande Estate Lekki, “I am from Edo state, I dropped out from Secondary School and came to Lagos where I started working as a Chef in a hotel. I was supplying liquid soap to hotels, and I was also the owner of the POS which the gang used to extort various sums of money from our victims. It was one Edet that introduced me to gay. What we usually do is to lure our victims to any of our rented apartments, and as soon as he entered the room, two of us would force him to have sex with us through the anus. While we were on it, other members would appear in the same room and start recording our sex orgies on video.

Sometimes, all of us would satisfy ourselves with one victim or just a few of us. But as soon as we finished satisfying ourselves, we would show the victim the video recording and threaten to post it on social media. This usually made them afraid and cry out, begging that we should state our terms. At that stage, we would request his financial details, and if he claimed he had no money, we would insist on calling either his parents or friends. This had always paid off hugely because we always ended up collecting all they had including valuables like gold, costly phones, etc. After that, we usually abandoned them in the apartment and would relocate to another place.”

Another suspect, Fuad Abioye, 23, a Muslim from Kwara state who also lives at Lekki, said he dropped out of Secondary School and started repairing air conditioners. He said, “We are three in our family, and I am the firstborn. My father is a graphic designer while my mother is a trader. I am not married. Edet introduced me to the gay gang. I have been with them for over six months. I have succeeded in luring two victims to the gang, and we collected money from them after raping them through the anus. I have been giving some of the money I made to my father to complete his house while I used the rest to pay my rent and furnish my house.”

Another suspect, Bruno Ebuka, 26, a Christian who lives in Ajah confessed that he had four bank accounts and all the gang members had been sharing the money they realized from their victims. He specifically said that one of their victims did not have money and they had to call his mother, who transferred the amount to the gang.

Gang members sleep with each other

On his part, Victor Ikechukwu, 18, a hotelier and Christian from Abia state who lives at Egbeda stated that he was a front desk staff in a hotel at Opebi, Ikeja. He said he also sells clothes online and that his father died when he was 9 years old while his mother lives in Port-Harcourt with his three siblings.

He said, “I set up two gay guys I met on a gay app called gender. We all agreed to have fun and that was why we hired an apartment where we live together. We indeed recorded our victims on video after which we threatened them and they would release money to us. We normally had three outings in a week. We used different apartments. Our gang members were also sleeping with each other.”

Okolie Francis, 23, a Christian and an entrepreneur from Anambra state said he lives in Badore and graduated from IMT, Enugu. He said one Mack Philips brought him to his house at Ibeju, Lekki. According to him, “he was the one that introduced me to homosexuality but when I stopped sleeping with him, he threw me out of his house. I was homeless until I met a friend who introduced me to the gang. I joined the gang because I was homeless and we used a gay app called Grinder to lure our victims. We also lure our victims from drinking joints.”

Kelvin Kalu, 33, the oldest member of the gang and a lawyer said he graduated from Madonna University, Okija in Anambra state. He also lives in Lekki. His confession: “My problem started after I got a call from a friend called Johnson on 17th of March, 2024, saying he was in a police station having problems with friends over a theft case. I went there to help them. When I got there, policemen were parading some suspects and one of them pointed at me saying that I was his gay customer. As a lawyer, I post job vacancies for Human Resources groups I belong to.

One Victor reached out to me for the job and I requested his CV but he instead sent his nude pictures to me. He was asking me for money saying that he was starving and I decided to help by accommodating him. One day, after he asked for money and I did not give him, he started threatening me. He later visited my house twice saying that I had sex with him. I am a bisexual male. I have feelings for both genders. I have had conversations with the same gender and it is about intimacy.”

Eno Joel Mbang, 25, a plumber from Cross River State said he was working in a cleaning company at Lekki where he was paid N40, 000.00. He said, “I joined the gang in March this year. We kidnapped our victims, stripped them naked and made love to them after which we would record them and use it to extort money from them. I only benefitted twice since joining them. What we are doing is bad.”

John Bitrus, 28, a businessman from Benue state said he was into liquid soap production until he joined the gang in November, last year. His confession: “I have three sisters but I don’t know how many brothers I have. I came to Lagos through one of my uncles who is now in Cameroun. We all use the gay app. When we kidnapped or lured a victim, he would be taken to a room where one of us would try to seduce him. As soon as he was in the mood, others would jump into the room and record the action. At that stage, the victim would be begging that we should not post it on social media. We would then demand payment. If he didn’t have money, he would call his friends to send money. I can’t say how many men we have slept with or how much money we collected from them.”

Eureka Evans, 27, a bartender from Anambra State is an undergraduate at the National Open University. According to him, “Our main motive was to reduce gay practice in the society but the economic problems in the country made us decide to use it and make money.

Other suspects, Opeyloyeru Aromide, a realtor from Oyo state, Edet Ekama, 28, from Calabar and Emeka Evans, 27, also confessed their involvement in the criminal act and that they have benefitted from it.

CP Adegoke swings into action

Police sources intimated Crime Guard that the suspects were arrested after two complainants alleged that they kidnapped and robbed them at Lekki and later held them hostage in an apartment where they forcefully collected all their valuables and huge sums of money through their bank accounts.

They reported the case at Maroko police station and when it got to the attention of the Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade, he swiftly transferred the case to his Special Squad with stern directives to crack the case and round up all the suspects. It was gathered that the team swung into action and after rounding up the suspects, investigations revealed that they also have international customers, especially from South Africa.

Police sources said that the worse thing about the gang is not only that they are gays but they kidnap, blackmail, extort and rape their fellow men.

Crime Guard learned that after investigations, the suspects were charged to Yaba Magistrate Court 3 on charges bothering on conspiracy, kidnapping and robbery but the suspects were nearly granted bail by the court after some interested parties permeated both the court and some investigators to reduce the charges.

Clandestine moves for bail stopped

It was gathered that the Commissioner of Police was alerted of plans to grant bail to the suspects but he ensured that they were duly remanded in prison custody pending the advice of the DPP. However, sources said while the police were investigating the case, clandestine moves were made severally by some interested highly placed people in the society to compromise investigators without success.

According to police sources, “Some of the interested people claimed to be human rights groups, lawyers and concerned Nigerians but we did not capitulate.