A middle-aged man, Issa Ibrahim, who hired a notorious kidnapping syndicate to abduct his father, Adamu Ibrahim in order to extort money from him (Adamu) has been sentenced to death by an Osun State High Court sitting in Ede.
Similarly, the court sentenced the four-man gang Issa hired to kidnap his father to death.
The other convicts included Lateef Bello, Abdulrahmon Soliu, Bello Ibrahim and Jolaanabi Saheed.
Delivering judgment on the matter on Tuesday, Justice Kudirat Akano said the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced the five convicts to death for murder and 14 years each for conspiracy and kidnapping.
When the convicts were arraigned on October 28, 2021 on four counts bordering on conspiracy, kidnapping, murder and dismembering the remains of the victim, they had entered into a not guilty for the charges.
Osun State Ministry of Justice had docked the convicts alongside a woman, Ajibola Saheed, who is the mother of Jolaanabi, the leader of the abduction gang.
The prosecution counsel from the ministry, Moses Faremi, had during the trial called three witnesses including two sons of the deceased and a police officer.
Faremi had tendered evidence against them including a stool, club, and others recovered from the house of Jolaanabi where the deceased was kept at Owode-Ede after he was kidnapped on April 17, 2017.
“They kidnapped Adamu from his house and took him to the house of Jolaanabi. They demanded for ransom of N10 million but later reduced it to N3 million which was delivered at Sagamu in Ogun State. While the father was in their den, the veil used to cover his face fell-off and he recognized his abductors. They killed him and dismembered his corpse. They threw the parts into Osun River to cover the crime,” Faremi said.
The presiding judge, Justice Akano, noted that by the confessional statements of the convicts and the evidence proffered by an eyewitness (one of the sons of the deceased), Adamu and others were found guilty of the crimes.
Akano declared that the evidence from one of the convicts, Issa Ibrahim, who is the son of the deceased further proved that the crime was committed after he told other gang members of the failure of his father to give him his birthright, hence they should kidnap him (deceased) for ransom of either money or cow since the victim was a Fulani herdsman.
She discharged and acquitted Ajibola Saheed (mother of the gang leader) on the ground that there is no evidence that linked her to any of the crime and prosecution neither failed to prove it.
“For conspiracy, I sentence the convicts to 14 years imprisonment; for murder, I sentence them to death and for kidnapping, I sentence them to 14 years imprisonment which will run concurrently,” the judge stated.
