Police arrest undergraduate over kidnap threat

The Police in Benue State have arrested a 200-level student of the Federal University of Agriculture (FUAM), Makurdi, for allegedly threatening to kidnap a business man.

The suspect, Amos Etubi, was apprehended by security operatives at the South Core junction of the institution when he went to pick up the money dropped by his supposed victim, Usman Abdul Akwu. Spokesman of the command, ASP Moses Yamu, who paraded Etubi among 15 others at the police headquarters in Makurdi, said the student threatened Akwu to pay a certain amount of money or risk kidnap.

Speaking to our correspondent, the suspect, an indigene of Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State and a senior staff with the state’s Local Government Service Commission posted to Ofu council confessed to have committed the crime due to frustration.

“I haven’t been paid for eight months and my parents who are pensioners haven’t been paid as well. So I went to see Akwu for assistance to pay my school fees but he wasn’t forthcoming, then I started threatening him on telephone to pay a ransom of N180, 000 or he would be kidnapped. “I don’t know what came over me. We had settled for N50,000 and it was at the point of collection of the money that I was arrested. I’m so ashamed of myself, “Etubi said.

The suspect who said he was on a study leave and facing extreme hardship following the inability of his state government to pay workers salaries, stressed that it was the first time he was committing the crime.