PAUL ORUDE, BAUCHI
Kidnappers, including a suspected neighbour’s child have abducted a 15-year-old boy, Abubakar Sadiq Suleiman and allegedly killed him after collecting N5.5m ransom.
Father of the deceased Mohammed Auwal Suleiman, told journalists that on Thursday, April 2,2020, he received a call on his phone and was asked if he was the father of Sadiq and he said yes.
He explained that the callers told him that they had abducted his son and demanded a ransom of N10 million or else they would kill Sadiq.
The bereaved said: “When they dropped the phone, I called my wife and asked her the whereabouts of Sadiq. She searched the house and told me that he was not around; I told her I was coming home because I was among the medical doctors selected to be part of the task force on Coronavirus.
” I drove back home, and after two days they called me again and asked me to give them N7 million; they collected some amount of cash at hand and sent me three different account numbers and asked me to deposit money into the three account numbers which I complied.
“They told me after evening prayer around 7pm that l should go and take my son in Inkil village; later they called and asked me to go to Kangere near some churches, that I would see my son. We went there with my brothers and searched for Sadiq but we couldn’t see him.”
He said that they returned and he received another phone call from the police who informed him they had arrested three suspects in connection with the incident and requested him to come and see the suspects because they confessed that they were responsible for kidnapping his son.
Suleiman said: “When I got there, I found that one of them purchased a brand new Mercedes Benz car for N2.3mn and they bought three phones each costing N160,000, and they said one of them was in Azare police station and all of them are in police custody
“Last Friday police said the suspects said the people that abducted the boy had killed him and took the police to a place where they buried the remains of Sadiq. After they saw the place, the police invited us to the scene where they buried him; we dug the grave and found his body and took him to the hospital where he was certified dead by a medical doctor.
“The doctor in his report said he saw where he was stabbed in the neck and where he was hit with something on the head and they gave us his dead body and we buried him according to Islamic rights.”
Suleiman said he wants justice from the authorities in order to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to engage in this heinous act.
He believed they killed him after they collected the ransom because they allowed him to speak with his son once after they collected the money.
Suleiman said he suspects the son of his neighbour was among the kidnappers because he was arrested and even his father went and confirmed that he is his biological son.
Police Public Relations Officer of the state command DSP Kamal Datti Abubakar confirmed the incident saying police have commenced investigation into the matter.