Segun Atanda/
A police parade in Abuja yesterday featured tales of the unexpected.
Among the paraded suspected criminals was a suitor who claimed to have kidnapped the lady he wanted to marry hoping to sponsor the wedding with the ransom.
“My lover put much pressure on me to marry her and I kidnapped her to raise money,” Bello Ahmed, who lives in Dubai United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a friend to the parents of the victim told reporters at the police parade.
Officers from the Force Intelligence Bureau’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) arrested
Ahmed with three other suspects.
He said, “I regret my involvement as I couldn’t get the money I expected to be paid as ransom.”
According to the Police, the suspects were arrested for “criminal conspiracy and kidnapping over the well-coordinated kidnap of one Miss Hannah Queen at Apo Estate in Abuja”.
The suspects all between the age group of 20-30 years were identified as 25-year-old Bello Ahmed who hails from Gombe town in Gombe State; Ibrahim Mohammed, 30, from Katsina LGA of Katsina State; Bilyamiyu Mohammed, 30, from Sokoto South LGA Sokoto State, and Uche Daniel, 30, a native of Obowo town, Obowo LGA, Imo State.
The police told NewsmakersNG that the victim was kidnapped on March 26, 2022, at Suniville Estate Apo, and the crime was reported to the IRT Headquarters at Guzape by the victim’s uncle – ACP Yusuf Sanni.
The police team arrested the suspects after they had released the victim, who has been identified as a lawyer and daughter of a renowned diplomat.
NewsmakersNG learned from the police that Hannah and Ahmed were engaged in a relationship.
The investigators found that Ahmed already has a wife and two children before in Dubai before relocating to Nigeria to conspire with a criminal gang of kidnappers to perfect the crime.
They told NewsmakersNG: “He had rented an apartment at Suniville Estate Apo, in the Nigerian capital city upon his relocation to Nigeria based on the relationship he also established with the victim of the kidnapping who he also promised to marry before the kidnap incident was perfected.
“He allegedly brought in the other three kidnap-for-ransom gang members into the 3- bedroom bungalow apartment three days before they kidnapped the lady when she 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 N10 million 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 N50 million as ransom from the victim’s parents, adding that he had expected that each member of the gang would get up to at least N10 million.
“Further interrogation of the key suspect by the Police had revealed that he had planned to marry the lady as a second wife in November 2022, but he decided to hold the marriage ceremony earlier in July this year to forestall the possibility of the lady going with another lover.”
Exhibits allegedly recovered from the suspects include a hack saw, two masks, one beret cap, one masking tape, and one iPhone.
Other exhibits allegedly 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 Investigating Police Officer (IPO) Sergent Law Okeke, all the suspects are culpable in the crime as all have made useful statements to aid police investigations into the crime.
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba has directed officers 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.
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