The Police in Bauchi State have arrested one Salisu Salmanu, who claimed
to be a nephew of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala
Mohammed, for kidnapping.
The police said Salmanu connived with his friends to kidnap his
three-year-old younger brother at Kofar Idi in Bauchi and demanded a ransom of
N10m from his father.
Salmanu, 19, was arrested with three of his friends, namely; Imrana
Abdullahi, 17, Abdullahi Mohammed, 19, and Umar Musa, 19, all residents of the
Kofar Idi area of the Bauchi metropolis.
The spokesman for the Bauchi State Police Command, DSP Haruna Mohammed,
said the police detectives attached to Township division on February 28, 2015,
at about 12pm, arrested the four suspects, who connived with four others still
at large to commit the crime.
He said, “The suspects conspired with four others, now at large, to
kidnap one Abdulkadir Salmanu, male and three years old of Kofar Idi, took him
to Gwallameji and demanded 10m ransom from the parents.
“The victim was liberated by the police and efforts are ongoing to
apprehend the other fleeing suspects after which they will be charged to
court.”
Salmanu said they intended buying a car with the money and also spend
the remaining money the way they deemed fit had they succeeded in getting the
N10m.
It was gathered that the suspect’s father, Salmanu Mohammed, is the
elder brother to the FCT Minister.
Salmanu said, “When we planned the kidnap, we agreed that if we
succeeded in getting the N10m, we should buy a car.
We also agreed that the rest of the money should be left for spending as
individual deemed fit.”
“Honestly, my father meets all my needs. He pays my school fees and
every other thing I need.
“It is just greed and selfishness which the devil put in our hearts.”
Salmanu said he was a student of a federal polytechnic, adding that he
had missed tests and lectures because he was in police custody.
He added that he would love to go back to school, finish his studies and
put the incident behind him as what could be called mistakes of the youth.
The 19-year-old mastermind said he prayed that God would expose others
who were into such “dirty act”.
He said, “By God’s grace, our hearts have totally changed since this is
our first time of doing this, and we pray that God prevent a future
recurrence.”
Another suspect, Mohammed, said they had no intention of harming the
boy.
“We took the child, not with the intention of harming him, but so we
could get money from his father and release him.
“We demanded N10m, but the father said he would pay N3m and we insisted
it was too small. We finally agreed that he should pay N5m.
“Honestly, if we had succeeded, we would not have returned the money,
but this would have been our first and last operation,” he said.
Tags
Crime