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Newly-released 911 transcripts reveal dueling allegations of kidnapping by Homeland Security Investigations agents and a Nigerian man whom they tried to question about overstaying his student visa.

According to an FBI affidavit that accompanies a 

 against Oluwadamilola Ogooluwa Bamigboye and his romantic partner Rekeya Lionesha Lee Frazier, several HSI agents waited outside a Plymouth, Minn. apartment complex Dec. 10 for Bamigboye to return.

Frazier, 23, arrived in a Jeep SUV along with Bamigboye, 24, in the front passenger seat.

When Bamigboye spotted the agents’ unmarked Ford Explorer, he allegedly pulled a mask over his face, exited the Jeep, immediately got into the back seat and urged Frazier to drive.

One of the agents got into the Jeep’s front seat and tried to stop the vehicle as Frazier headed for the New Hope police station two miles away.

“ICE is in my car! ICE is in my car!” Bamigboye told a 911 dispatcher during a call placed around 2:50 p.m. from the moving Jeep.

“What’s the address?” the dispatcher asked. 

“ICE is in my car,” Bamigboye repeated. “We’re going to the police station right now. We’re in Plymouth.” 

“O.K. Are they with you right now?” the dispatcher replied.

“Keep going. Don’t stop,” Bamigboye said moments later to Frazier.

Just before the call disconnected, Bamigboye was recorded saying “…you tried to kidnap me.”

“You wouldn’t get out of the car,” the unnamed agent retorted. “You kidnapped me.” 

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which was not part of the incident, released the transcript of Bamigboye’s 911 call on Friday evening in response to a data request from MPR News earlier in the week. Audio of 911 calls is not considered public data under Minnesota’s Data Practices Act, but written transcripts of emergency calls are. 

As Bamigboye and Frazier made their way to the police station, other HSI agents followed close behind with their sirens and lights on in the unmarked Explorer. 

“One of our agents just got kidnapped!” said a second agent, according to the transcript of a simultaneous 911 call made from the squad SUV. The agent’s name was redacted from the transcript.

“OK. Your special agent just got kidnapped?” the dispatcher replied. 

“Yes ma’am. We tried taking a guy. The driver took off. She’s not letting him out of the car.”

The agent remained on the phone as his colleague followed Bamigboye and Frazier to the police station. At one point the HSI agents intentionally struck the Jeep from behind in an attempt to stop it.

“We’re trying to bump ‘em,” the agent in the Explorer told the dispatcher as they passed a Hy-Vee grocery store. 

The call ended after the agent told the dispatcher that Bamigboye was in custody. According to court documents, Bamigboye ran from the police station into the Hy-Vee, where an agent “took Bamigboye to the ground and arrested him.” Authorities arrested Frazier at the police station.

On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted the couple on charges of resisting and impeding a federal officer. At their arraignment and detention hearing, they each pleaded not guilty. 

 the prosecution’s version of events.  

Calling the government’s case “ludicrous,” attorney Kevin Riach, who represents Bamigboye  said that his client “may be the first criminal in history to call 911 during the commission of his alleged crime.”

Federal public defender Jean Brandl said that Frazier was frightened and did not know that the plain-clothes agents were law enforcement. Frazier is the sister of Darnella Frazier, who as a teen 

 of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in 2020.

Citing a lack of any criminal history for either defendant, Magistrate Judge David Schultz rejected a prosecutor’s request to keep the couple jailed as their case moves forward. 

Frazier was released from pretrial detention on Tuesday. While Schultz also ordered Bamigboye released, he was transferred from the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service, which oversees pretrial detainees, to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Bamigboye remains in the Sherburne County Jail.   

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Matt Sepic

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Newly-released 911 transcripts reveal dueling allegations of kidnapping by Homeland Security Investigations agents and a Nigerian man whom they tried to question about his immigration status. Oluwadamilola Bamigboye called 911 from the back seat of his girlfriend’s SUV as she headed for the New Hope police station. 

A person and a police officer walk away from the camera.

‘ICE is in my car!’ 911 transcripts reveal dueling ‘kidnapping’ claims

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