The Bauchi state Police command have
arrested a 19 year old man identified as Salisu Salmanu, who claims to
be a nephew of the Minister of the
Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, for conniving with
three of his friends to kidnap his own three year old younger brother,
Abdulkadir Salmanu, and demanding a ransom of N10m from his father. Salisu is said to
be the son of the elder brother of the FCT Minister.
According
to a report by Punch, the state police spokesperson, DSP Haruna Mohammed confirmed the incident and said Salisu in company of his friends
identified as ; Imrana Abdullahi, 17, Abdullahi Mohammed, 19, and
Umar Musa, 19, all residents of the Kofar Idi area of the Bauchi
metropolis were arrested on February 28th.
“The suspects conspired with four others, now at large, to kidnap one Abdulkadir Salmanu, male and three years old 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.”he said
When interrogated, Salisu said it was greed that motivated him to kidnap his own brother.
"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. 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.”
One of his accomplice, Abdullahi Mohammed when interrogated said when
they kidnapped the boy, they had no intention of harming him...
“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.
The police say investigations into the matter is ongoing.
Source: Punch
