Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
Kwara State High Court in Ilorin yesterday sent Seriki Fulani of Kwara, Mr. Usman Adamu, his brother and Mr. Gidaddo Idris to life imprisonment for conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping.
The convicts were said to have kidnapped one Abubakar Ahmad for which they collected N1 million ransom after spending 20 days in their custody.
The kidnap was in 2022.
The Kwara State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP,) Mr. Idowu Ayoola, brought the defendants before the court for conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping itself.
In her judgment yesterday, Justice Adenike Akinpelu, confirmed that the trio were all in agreement to have committed the offence, adding that their physical presence at the kidnap scene was immaterial.
According to her, 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 the counsel to the defendants to dismiss the two charges against them based on the fact that they were not at the scene of the incident.”
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, the judge said: “By Section 15 of the Lead 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 ruled, ordering that N600,000 be paid the victim of the abduction.”
