Justice Adenike Akinpelu of the Kwara State High Court on Thursday sentenced the Serikin Fulani in the state (ardo), Alhaji Usman Adamu, his brother, and one Gidado Idris to life imprisonment for conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping himself.
The case was investigated by the DSS and prosecuted by the Kwara State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Ayoola Akande.
The Serikin Fulani and two others were accused of kidnapping one Abubakar Ahmad and collected a ransom of N1 million before his eventual release after spending 20 days.
The kidnap incident took place in the middle of last year.
In her judgment, Justice Adenike Akinpelu said that the trio was all in agreement to commit the offence, adding that whether they were physically present at the kidnap scene was immaterial.
She added that the convicts “supposedly arrested their victim claiming that he was a kidnap suspect to extort money from him.
“I am not persuaded by the submissions of counsel to defendants to dismiss the two- count charge against them based on the fact that they were not at the scene of the incident”.
Continuing, Mrs. Akinpelu lamented that “it is saddening and disturbing that community leaders charged with the welfare of their subjects could because of the love of money breach the security of the same subjects.
“They are hereby found guilty as charged and are so convicted”.
After listening to the convicts’ allocutus plea of having over 20 children, more than eight wives and being the breadwinner of the family, the judge said that “by Section 15 of the Kwara state Anti-Kidnapping Law, the court cannot exercise any discretion of leniency, so you are hereby sentence to life imprisonment. The sentence is to run concurrently”.
She ordered that a sum of N600,000 be paid to the victim of the abduction