Court sentences 4 kidnappers to life imprisonment

A Federal High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced four kidnappers to life imprisonment for kidnapping a business tycoon, late Abubakar Dankure.

The convicts were arrested by security agents and dragged before the court in 2013.

After a prolonged legal battle for eight years, last week, Justice Lurwanu Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Sokoto sentenced the kidnappers to life imprisonment.

Counsel to the petitioners, Barrister Labaran Sha’aibu Magaji, said: “Two of them had since died of some illnesses and four of them have been sentenced to life in jail.”

Apart from life in jail, the court had also asked the kidnappers to return the ransom they collected amounting to $3,000

“Secondly, the court had also asked them to pay the victim’s family N50m to ameliorate the distress they’ve been subjected to due to the death of their father.

“Again, they’re asked to refund N100,000 each to Alhaji Aminu Dankure and Nasiru as compensation of their air ticket they paid going to Abuja on the mission of paying the ransom to secure their father’s release in Kwali,” the lawyer said.

One of the deceased’s children, Alhaji Aminu Abubakar Dankure, said though the ruling couldn’t fill the vacuum created by the demise of their father but they’ve felt respite and mustered some confidence that the judgment is objectively fair.

“As the judgement was passed on, we’re grateful to Allah. And we’ve nothing to contest/contend in the ruling,” he said.

Kidnapping for ransoms has become the order of the day in Nigeria with no time to end soon in sight.

It could be recalled that the Senate has passed a law that prescribed life imprisonment for kidnappers as against 10 years jail term in the past.