A High Court sitting in Ilorin has sentenced a traditional ruler and two others to life imprisonment for conspiracy and kidnapping.<\/p>\n
Those convicted are the Sarkin Fulani of Kwara, Usman Adamu, his brother, and one Gidaddo Idris.<\/p>\n
They were tried and convicted of kidnapping one Abubakar Ahmad sometime in 2022.<\/p>\n
The convicts were said to have collected a ransom of N1 million before releasing their victim, who had spent 20 days in captivity.<\/p>\n
Kwara State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Idowu Ayoola, brought the then defendants before the court for alleged conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping itself.<\/p>\n
In her judgement, Justice Adenike Akinpelu held that evidence adduced by the prosecution proved that all three accused persons connived to commit the crime.<\/p>\n
According to her, argument about whether or not they were physically present at the scene of the crime is immaterial.<\/p>\n
The Judge said that the convicts \u201csupposedly arrested their victim claiming that he was a kidnap suspect to extort money from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not persuaded by the submissions of counsel to the defendants to dismiss the two-count charge against them based on the fact that they were not at the scene of the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
Akinpelu lamented that, \u201cit 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are hereby found guilty as charged and are so convicted.\u201d she ordered.<\/p>\n
After listening to the convicts\u2019 allocutus, the judge said: \u201cBy Section 15 of the state Anti Kidnapping Law, the court cannot exercise any discretion of leniency.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you are hereby sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence is to run concurrently,\u201d she ruled.<\/p>\n
The judge also ordered the convict to pay N600,000 to the victim of the abduction as damages.<\/p>\n
A High Court sitting in Ilorin has sentenced a traditional ruler and two others to life imprisonment for conspiracy and kidnapping. Those convicted are the Sarkin Fulani of Kwara, Usman…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n