Abu Sofia KFR group to cooperate with military

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — The notorious leader of the Abu Sofia kidnap-for-ransom gang, implicated in the abduction last year of a Korean treasure hunter in Sultan Kudarat, has pledged to help the military locate the whereabouts of his counterparts in the Pentagon kidnapping syndicate after turning himself in to the military over the weekend.

Abdulazis Omadia, also known as Commander Tropical, who had a P200,000 bounty on his head, surrendered to the Army’s 47th Infantry Battalion based in Sultan Kudarat after learning he had been marked for execution by a hit squad of the Pentagon Gang, led by Tahir Alonto, for competing with its kidnapping activities in Central Mindanao.

Omadia was tagged as one of the masterminds in the Feb. 6, 2002 kidnapping of Korean national Jae Kwon Yon and his Filipino business partner Carlos Belonio while surveying sites for treasure hunting activities in Palembang, Sultan Kudarat. Omadia and his cohorts, among them Commander Salem Gogo of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have since been subject of a continuing manhunt by the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and its component units in Sultan Kudarat.

Through the efforts of Sultan Kudarat Gov. Datu Pax Mangudadatu and Palembang Mayor Samroud Mamansual, Belonio and Jae were both released by their captors one after another following six months of captivity in the forested border of Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato.

During his initial de-briefing by Army agents, Omadia, who founded the Abu Sofia kidnap group, said he is ready to help authorities locate the whereabouts of the top leaders of the Pentagon Gang, responsible for the kidnapping of more than 30 Central Mindanao residents since 2001.