Onimisi Alao, Yola
THE Adamawa State Government on Wednesday arraigned two more suspected kidnappers before a high court in the state capital, Yola
The Directorate of State Services (DSS) had on Monday arraigned nine suspects on similar charges.
The eleven suspects had been in custody of the DSS which had been investigating them before arraigning nine on Monday and handing to the state government the two arraigned Wednesday.
According to First Information Report, one of the two suspects arraigned Wednesday, Mohammed Abubakar who hails from Madugu in Girei council, and others at large, “while armed with guns on 18th May, 2019, unlawfully kidnapped and held for ransom one Abiola Dubagari of Bajam in Girei LGA and in the course of which they shot and killed, Dubagari, the father of the victim.”
Mohammed Abubakar is equally charged, with the two at large, with abducting one Caleb Francis on June 16, 2019 at Sangere, in Girei LGA.
On how Dubagari was killed, Mohamed Abubakar said in his confessional statement that on the fateful 18th May, 2020, he advised one of their gang members to go down to Bajam village, a Yungur community in Girei LGA to kidnap Abiola who had a car, that they also called other gang member and went to the village together.
He said while armed with guns, they arrived the village in the night and that he and one other entered the man’s house, while one other was left outside to man the gate, that they picked the man, covered his face and left to the bush.
He added that while taking their victim to the bush, they heard a gunshot, but when they later saw one of their men who was asked to man the gate, they asked him about the gunshot, and he told them that he shot and killed Dubagari.
On his part, the other accused, Mohammed Goni of Sabin Pegi GRA, Song, in Song LGA is being prosecuted for faking kidnapping.
Our corredoondent gathered that in September 2019, at Sigire, a village along Song-Gombi road, the suspect under false pretence, represented himself as a kidnapped person, through which he collected N100,000 from his boss, Alhaji Husseini Garba.
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Goni narrated in FIR that in September last year, he left his house and later called his wife and told her to notify his boss that he had been kidnapped and his abductors were demanding money from him to secure his release.
Goni revealed that three months after that episode, he called one Innocent Nkapuchire, told him that he was a kidnapper and asked him to give him N500,000 or else he will be kidnapped.
He said he and the man eventually agreed on N20,000, but that when he went to collect it at the man’s shop, prearranged local hunters seized him and handed him to soldiers around the place who in turn took him to the DSS.
At the court session in Yola, the two had their charges read to them while the judge took their plea, with both of them pleading not guilty.
Justice Abdulaziz Waziri adjourned the case to the 20th of this month for commencement of trial, and asked that they be returned to detention at a correctional centre.
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