Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Counsel to Alhaji Musa Iman, the suspect who was alleged to have raised false alarm of being kidnapped, Mohammed T Mohammed, has exonerated his client from the allegation.
Mohammed said the way and manner Iman was picked by security operatives from Lagos was suspicious to onlookers, who raised the alarm on behalf of the suspect.
Iman was picked up in Kawo area of Kaduna city about a week ago for an alleged debt of N5 million belonging to his business partner in Lagos. A mob action was said to have led to the death of three persons on the fateful day in Kaduna.
He further disclosed that his client ordered for petroleum products from NNPC and was asked to deposits some money and he approached his business partner in Lagos who supported him with the money.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the lawyer said his client is a respected businessman that deals in oil and gas products who should not be detained for more than 24 hours.
“You know the procedure in NNPC; the 15 trailers he ordered for did not arrive when expected; after some time, his business partner became impatient and he laid the case before Lagos State police command
“When my client got wind of this, he sent a laywer to Lagos to plead with the police for more time, unknown to him, his partner had perfected a plan to come and forcefully arrest him in Kaduna.
“On Thursday last week, he started seeing strange faces moving around his premises trailing him, which he even reported to his wife.
“The next Monday morning, when he went to pick his children from school, he was stopped on the road and was forcefully picked out of his car and put into a Sienna bus, and he started struggling with them because he couldn’t recognise any of them.
“This struggling created a scenario that attracted passersby; when they succeeded in forcefully putting him inside their car, it was then the commercial motorcyclists started chasing them and shouting, “kidnappers, kidnappers.
“This drew the attention of the crowd that finally stopped the Sienna around Kawo Bridge.
“You know that place is a flashpoint, full of hoodlums who descended on the vehicle and even our client; Alhaji Musa was beaten but was later released after someone identified him, that was how he managed to escape just as the other two passengers in the vehicle escaped.
“However, the driver was not that lucky, as he was lynched to death and set ablaze by the hoodlums.
“Our client is a respectable, God-fearing businessman that will never have anything to do with hoodlums and mob action.
“And I will say categorically that he is not the one that raised the false alarm of kidnapping.
“Today (yesterday) marked the 8th day that he has been in detention and the police have denied us access to him, and our oral bail application has been turned down.
“And very surprising, we heard that he was paraded along with other hardened criminals. This is unfortunate,” Mohammed said.
Alhaji Musa was alleged to have raised a false alarm of being kidnapped by some people who later turned out to be his sureties from Lagos and the action led to the death of three people.