A 19-year-old suspected kidnapper has been arrested by the Gombe State Police Command for kidnapping a 7-year-old boy identified as Hassan Abubakar who lives in Kumbiya-Kumbiya Quarters for N3.5m ransom.
The kidnapper recognised as Mohammed Ahmed who resides in Gabukka Quarters, Gombe Metropolis was arrested while returning the kidnapped boy after his father’s refusal to pay the N3.5m ransom.
WITHIN NIGERIA learnt that the boy was kidnapped inside the mosque for 3 days before the suspect (Ahmed) brought him home while posing as a Good Samaritan.
While reacting to the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer in Gombe state, SP Mary Malum confirmed the arrest of the suspect and stressed that the suspect will be charged to court when the investigation has been concluded.
She said, “Ahmed went to the Kumbiya-Kumbiya Quarter in Gombe, where he saw the victim performing ablution in a mosque and sent him to buy sachet water for him; while on the way, he followed the boy and picked him on a motorcycle and took him to his house.
“He hid the victim for two days and thereafter demanded ransom of N3.5m from the father of the victim before he could be released.
When he saw that the ransom was not forthcoming, Ahmed decided to call one Aminu Babayo, the uncle to the victim, and told him that he had seen the boy abandoned at the Gabukka Quarter.
“Aminu pleaded with him to bring the victim to his grandfather’s house at the Gabukka Quarter in order to be appreciated. While the relatives were still jubilant, the victim’s father observed that the mobile telephone number used in demanding the ransom was the same used in calling the victim’s uncle immediately alerted SARS operatives, who arrested the suspect.”