CRIME Suspected kidnappers demanded ransom before attempting abduction

ALokoja chief magistrates’ court has ordered that four men accused of attempted kidnap of a primary school pupil and the demand for a N5 million ransom be remanded in prison.

Levi Animoku of the Lokoja Chief Magistrate Court I ordered the accused persons to be remanded in Federal Prison, Koton-Karfe, after rejecting a bail application yesterday.

Police prosecutor, Gabriel Otowu, told the court that the accused persons hatched the plan in Bauchi and travelled to Kogi to carry out the operation in Anyigba, Dekina Local Government Area.

Otowu said the accused, Suleiman Isiaka, 30, Ibrahim James, 32, Shehu Agba, 36, and Damisa Daniel John, 27, along with one other currently at large conspired to commit the offence which he said was contrary to Section 97(1) of the Penal Code and Section 5 of the Kogi State Kidnapping and Other Related Offences (Prohibition) Law, 2005.

He said the four accused and their fleeing accomplice criminally conspired and left Bauchi in an Opel Vectra car to Anyigba on a ‘’technically planned mission to kidnap” the boy (name withheld).

He said the gang, headed by Isiaka, went to Royal Breed Academy, Anyigba, where the victim was schooling, to carry out the operation, but ran out of luck.

The accused persons, according to the prosecutor, shortly before carrying out the operation, had called the father of the boy to demand N5m and N1m separate ransoms as they approached the scene of the planned kidnap operation, but that unfortunately they moved straight into the waiting security net of the police.

Otowu, in his submission, said investigation into the matter was almost done but asked for another date for mention, adding that the fleeing accomplice would have to be arrested.

The magistrate, while ruling on the accused person’s bail application, held that the alleged offence was horrifying. “It carries high degree of penalties. Though I agree that bail is not a discharge and in view of the gravity of the offence and the penalty awardable at the end of the trial (if any) the propensity to jump bail is high.

“I am not prepared to take that risk in this court. Accordingly, I refuse the bail of the defendants in this court,” he held, and adjourned the matter to March 13 for mention.