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 told PUNCH Metro that 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.
