A 28-year-old kidnap suspect, Bello Ahmed, has confessed that he kidnapped his lover, Miss Hannah Queen at Apo Estate in Abuja to raise money for their traditional marriage.
Bello, who was arrested along with three others allegedly conspired with Ibrahim Mohammed, 30; Bilyamiyu Mohammed, 30; and Uche Daniel 34 to abduct his lover on March 26, 2022, after a carefully-organized plan.
The kidnapped victim, who is a lawyer and daughter of a renowned diplomat was said to have met her lover, Bello in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The four suspects were arrested by operatives of the Force Intelligence Bureau’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) following a report filed at the IRT Headquarters at Guzape by one of the victim’s uncles, ACP Yusuf Sanni.
The police said the suspects were arrested for criminal conspiracy and kidnapping over the well-coordinated kidnap.
However, in his statement, Bello admitted to organising the abduction of his lover because she had put him under pressure to raise money for their traditional marriage.
He said, “My lover put so much pressure on me to marry her. So, I was forced to kidnap her to raise the money I needed. I regret my involvement in the act as I couldn’t get the money. I expected that I will be paid the ransom.”
The kidnapped victim was said to be in a relationship with the suspect who lives in Dubai and is also a friend to the parents of the victim.
According to Daily Trust, police investigations revealed that the key suspect had married a wife and had two children in Dubai before relocating to Nigeria.
The investigation also revealed that the suspect had a rented apartment at the aforementioned estate in Abuja upon his relocation to Nigeria based on the relationship.
He was alleged to have brought the other three gang members into the 3-bedroom bungalow apartment three days before the kidnap was arranged by himself when the lady visited him and was relaxing in his living room.
After the criminal gang members took him and his would-be spouse into captivity, he made the victim believe that he had sent N10m to the kidnappers for their release through a fake bank alert, until she discovered the antics and started calling her parents for her release.
The key suspect confessed that they expected a total of N50m as ransom from the parents of the victim so that the gang would get up to at least N10m each.
Further interrogation revealed that Bello had initially planned to marry the lady as a second wife in November 2022, but moved the marriage ceremony forward to July to forestall the possibility of her marriage to a newfound lover.
Exhibits said to have been recovered from the suspects include a hack saw, two masks, one beret cap, one masking tape and one iPhone.
Other exhibits said to have been used by the suspects for the kidnapping and still missing from the house of the key suspect include; three toy guns and an axe
According to the investigative Police Officer, Sergeant Law Okeke, all the suspects are culpable in the crime as all have made useful statements to aid the police investigations into the crime.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Usman Alkali Baba, has directed the police authorities on the imperatives of diligent prosecution of the matter in the nation’s law courts for justice to be served on all the suspects involved.
