Jonathan’s campaign chief rescued from kidnap
- Details
- Category: Law, Crime & Judiciary
- Published on Monday, 30 August 2010 05:58
- Written by Daily Sun
- Hits: 1686
Balewa, the son of Nigeria's first Prime Minister and the son-in-law to the late Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Samuel Akintola was reportedly abducted at a shopping complex in the Jabi District, where he had gone to visit hs wife. FCT Police Commissioner, Haruna John during a press conference where he handed over the rescued Tafawa-Balewa further disclosed that the suspects who were arrested in the process of collecting the ransom fee, confessed that they all hatched the plans. The police boss also said the abductors came from Minna, the Niger State capital.
The police said the kidnappers had initially demanded N100 million ransom from the victim’s family who negotiated the sum down to N10million. He added that the two of the suspects were nabbed with one of them sustaining serious bullet wounds and receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital in Abuja. The injured suspect, the police said, was wounded while trying to pick the ransom at a designated venue within Abuja at about 10.00 pm on Saturday.
According to Haruna, “when we got the report of Dr. Jaihalil Tafawa Balewa on Friday evening, I mobilized my men including myself and swung into action. We had sleepless a night all through using every method and available equipment. Eventually, through intelligent report gathering, we traced the kidnappers and finally got this breakthrough of rescuing the victim unhurt.
“Preliminary investigation so far revealed that the kidnappers came from Minna. The one we got has confessed. Two of them were arrested while trying to pick their demanded ransom fee. The suspects came within a Honda saloon car Reg. No. KB AL 874 BRK. After finishing the operation, they still drove back to Minna with the car which is parked at the Command here.”
One of the suspects who identified himself as Adamu, a student of the College of Education, Minna, and the driver of the gang, alleged that it was one of his friends by name Fatai, who is still at large, who drafted him into the crime. “It was my friend by name Fatai, a carpenter, who called me that there was a work that we would do in Abuja. He left Minna before me and said I should meet him at Mpape junction. I arrived Abuja and I met him with three other persons and said we should go to the house where we were going to work.
When we got there, I and the other persons stayed outside. I was in the car while the other persons were at the gate with a gun while the remaining went inside and came out with one man. They said I should drive them to one the villages around the town. I dropped them at the village which I didn’t know the name and I travelled back to Minna,” Adamu narrated.
The victim, while narrating his ordeal said “ On Friday evening, some people came in to my wife’s office at about 6.50pm and pointed a gun at me. They ordered me to empty my pockets as well as the other people in the office. They collected my phones, wristwatch and money. They pushed me inside an awaiting vehicle outside the gate and drove off. They used a veil to cover my face and took me away to unknown destination until my rescue by the police.”
