A High Court sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, has sentenced Sarkin Fulani of Kwara, Usman Adamu, his brother, and one Gidaddo Idris to life imprisonment for conspiracy to kidnap and for actually kidnapping.
The convicts were accused of kidnapping one Abubakar Ahmad and allegedly collecting a ransom of N1 million before his eventual release after spending 20 days in captivity.
The kidnap incident happened in the middle of 2022.
Kwara state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Idowu Ayoola, brought the then defendants before the court for alleged conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping itself.
In her judgment, Justice Adenike Akinpelu, said that the trio were all in agreement to commit a crime, adding that it was immaterial whether they were physically present at the kidnap scene or not.
She said that the convicts “supposedly arrested their victim claiming that he was a kidnap suspect to extort money from him.
The judge added: “I am not persuaded by the submissions of counsel to defendants to dismiss the two-count charge against them based on the fact that they were not at the scene of the incident.”
Justice 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 also ordered that a sum of N600,000 be paid to the victim of the abduction.