Two Kidnappers Jailed for life in Ondo
An Akure High Court has sentenced two men, Shehu Usman Seidu and Aliyu Suleiman Umar to life imprisonment for
kidnapping a lecturer at the Ondo State-owned Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO).
The Justice Olusegun Odusola led court also found them guilty of armed robbery, conspiracy, and aiding & abetting.
Seidu and Umar were convicted of three out of the seven-count charge levelled against them by the state.
They were arraigned for kidnapping the lecturer for ransom. Seidu and Umar were arrested with the N5 million paid as ransom by the family of their victim.
Two victims – Alhaji Suleiman Jamiu and his son – were also rescued from the den of the kidnappers.
The prosecution team, led by Ife Olorunfemi, in charge AK/99c/ 2019, said a lecturer of RUGIPO was kidnapped on Utelu-Owo Road, in which N5 million was negotiated and paid by the family of the victim.
The prosecution said the combined task force of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Police, Army and Department of State Services (DSS) set up by the state government to curb kidnapping in the state arrested the convicts at Alayere in Akure North Local Government Area.
The prosecutor said phone sets abandoned by the fleeing kidnappers were used in tracking them after they had collected ransom from the victim’s family.
Seidu and Umar were arraigned along two others for kidnapping, conspiracy and armed robbery. The Olorunfemi and Tunde Akinrele- led prosecution team called six witnesses to prove the case while the convicts testified in their own defence.
