Punch
A suspected member of a kidnap gang, Bello Mohammed, has been held for the abduction and killing of a businessman, one Osondu Nwachukwu, who operated a sachet water factory in Lafia, Nasarawa State.
Mohammed and four other members at large identified simply as Maikano, Dogo, Hassan and Jubril reportedly carried out the act.
He was arrested on March 11 by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team after the case was reported to the police.
City Round learnt that the gang kidnapped Nwachukwu from his house and contacted his wife to pay N5m ransom.
The wife reportedly appealed to them to collect N40,000 and was told to drop the money at a designated point in the bush.
“Before she could deliver it, they butchered her husband and put his corpse in a sack,” a police source said.
The suspects were about to dispose of the remains in a bush in the Bukan Koto area along Makurdi Maraba-Ankunza road when some men, who were going to a mosque to pray, saw them conveying the sack in a wheelbarrow.
They reportedly abandoned the sack and ran away when the worshippers, who were suspicious of the gang, demanded to know the content.
The source added, “They saw the corpse of the victim and reported the matter to the police. Acting on credible intelligence, detectives were able to arrest one Bello Mohammed, a native of Lafia Local Government Area, Nasarawa. He confessed to the crime and said that he is part of a kidnapping and cattle rustling gang.”
Mohammed, 37, a farmer married with two wives and eight children, said his brother-in-law, Dogo, persuaded him to join the kidnap gang when he (Mohammed) complained that things were hard for him.
He explained that an unnamed Igbo man in Lafia contracted the gang to kidnap Nwachukwu.
Mohammed stated, “He told us that the man owned sachet water business but was stingy. He assured us that the man would pay at least N10m because he was rich. He gave us all the details about his movement and advised that the best place to abduct him was his house.
