By Christopher Oji
A suspected kidnapper, Ahmed Bello has confessed that he kidnapped his fiancee to raise money from her wealthy parents for their wedding.
Bello and three other accomplices were arrested by the IGP Intelligence Rapid Response Team (IRT) headed by DCP Tunji Disu, Abuja for abducting Bello’s lover, a legal practitioner, Miss Hannah Queen at Apo Estate in Abuja and demanded for N50 million ransom.
Bello who arranged for the kidnap of his lover ,a daughter of a Diplomat, said:” My ex-lover put so much pressure on me to marry her and I had to kidnap her in order to raise the money I needed for the wedding . Her parents are so rich. Anyway,
I regret my involvement in the act as I couldn’t get the money I expected ‘ll be paid as ransom”.
According to the police, Bello had revelead that he had planned to marry the lady as a second wife in November 2022, but he decided to do the marriage ceremony in July this year in order to forestall the possibility of her marriage a new found lover.
The police said the suspects involved in the kidnap of the lady were between the age group of 20-30 years and identified as Bello Ahmed, 25, 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 kidnap of victim who was kidnapped on 26th March 2022 at Suniville Estate Apo was reported to the IRT Headquarters at Guzape by one of her uncles, ACP Yusuf Sanni, and the Police team arrested the suspects after they had released her.
“The kidnapped victim a lawyer and daughter of a renowned diplomat was said to be engeged in a relationship with the suspect , Bello Ahmed, who lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates( UAE), and a friend to the parents of the victim”
It was gathered from Police investigations that the key suspect had married a wife and has two children before in Dubai before relocating to Nigeria to conspire with other criminal gang of kidnappers.
“He had rented an apartment at the aforementioned estate 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 was alleged to have brought in the other three gang members into the 3- bedroom bungalow apartment three days before the kidnap was arranged by himself when the lady visited him and was relaxing at his living room.
“After the gang members took him and his would be spouse into captivity, he made the victim to 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 parents of the victim of the victim, adding that he had expected that the gang would get up to N10 million each
“Exhibits said to have been recovered from the suspects included a hack saw, two masks, one berret cap, one masking tape and one i-phone.
Other exhibits said to have been 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 investigative Police Officer, Sergeant Law Okeke, all the suspects are culpable in the crime as that all have made useful statements to aid Police investigations into the crime.
The Inspector-General of Police IGP Usman Alkali Baba has directed the Police authorities on the imperatives of a diligent prosecution of the matter in the nation’s law courts for justice to be served on all the suspects involved.
