Abdullahi Muhammadu, an officer of the Division of State Companies, DSS, connected to the anti-kidnapping squad within the Okeogun space of Oyo State, on Wednesday, instructed a Federal Excessive Courtroom in Ibadan that native safety personnel made it straightforward for them to arrest some suspected kidnappers.
Muhammadu was testifying earlier than Justice E.U. Akpan.
“Once we have been knowledgeable that some kidnappers have been working alongside Iganna Highway, we moved in direction of the scene and discovered {that a} group of native vigilantes had engaged and curtailed them, we merely took over the remainder of the operation from them.
“Throughout our investigation, the suspects confessed that they have been a part of the abductors terrorising the individuals of Okeogun and travellers on Iganna routes.
“Furthermore, we found that the 2 kidnappers, Aliyu Muhammadu and Idris Umar, are among the many 400 inmates who escaped throughout the 2021 jailbreak in Abolongo Custodial Medium Centre in Oyo City.
“Muhammadu and Umar confessed that on the day they have been caught that they had robbed a few of their victims of N1.2 million, throughout our search, we have been in a position to get better N500,000 in money from the mentioned N1.2 million.”
Based on Muhammadu, one in every of their victims who escaped recognized the second defendant as one of many kidnappers who held him hostage.
“The sufferer additionally defined that the abductors had initially demanded N50 million however after a lot pleading agreed to gather N10 million earlier than the vigilantes finally intercepted them,” Muhammadu defined.
The witness by way of the prosecution counsel, Mrs Aderonke Imama, tendered the confessional statements of the defendants earlier than the courtroom.
Nonetheless, the Defence Counsel, Mr Femi Oyinloye, opposed the tendering of the confessional statements, explaining that the kin of the defendants have been by no means current to witness what was written.
Oyinloye additionally mentioned the prosecution didn’t permit him to have entry to the confessional statements earlier than tendering them in courtroom.
In a re-examination, the witness mentioned some legal professionals from the Authorized Help Council have been current on the investigation and noticed when the defendants have been making their confessional statements.
Justice Akpan subsequently admitted the confessional statements and adjourned the case till March 11 for continuation of trial.
NAN remembers that Aliyu Muhammadu, 22 and Idris Umar, 22, are going through costs bordering on alleged hostage-taking, freeway theft, illegal possession of weapons and illegal escape from correctional services.
