The Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital has sentenced three kidnapping suspects to life imprisonment for conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping itself.
The convicts, Serikin Fulani of Kwara, Usman A Adamu, his brother, and one Gidaddo Idris were convicted on Thursday for kidnapping Abubakar Ahmad and allegedly collecting a ransom of N1 million before his eventual release after spending 20 days.
The crime was commited happened in the middle of last year.
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Idowu Ayoola, Kwara State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), brought the accused before the court for alleged conspiracy to kidnap and the act of kidnapping.
Justice Adenike Akinpelu in her judgement stated that the trio were all in agreement to commit the crime, adding that whether they were physically present at the kidnapping scene was immaterial.
According to her: “I am not persuaded by the submissions of counsel to defendants counsel to dismiss the two-count charge against them based on the fact that they were not at the scene of the incident.”
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Mrs Akinpelu also lamented: “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 convict’s 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 sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence is to run concurrently.”
The judge ordered that a sum of N600,000 be paid to the victim of the kidnapping.
