‘Kidnapper’ Who Killed Neighbour’s 6-Year-Old Son After N1m Ransom Speaks

Sani Adamu a.k.a Galadima, said to be ex-military personnel while being paraded alongside three other accomplices at the Kaduna State Police Command on Monday, said he held the boy’s legs while one Umar Mainasara, a water vendor, covered his nose.

Daily Trust reports that apart from Galadima, other suspects paraded were 32-year-old Umar Mainasara, 25-year-old Muhammadu Nazifi and 53-year-old Amina Ahmed who have been accused of kidnapping and culpable homicide.

Galadima who lives in Badarawa, near the boy’s family home, told journalists that Nazifi, a next-door neighbour of Mohammed’s parents, was the mastermind of the kidnapping and had cajoled the boy to go on an errand where Galadima abducted him.

He said the boy was then taken to Zaria and later Kano where they kept him in the custody of the fourth suspect, Amina, who happened to his girlfriend.

He, however, said Nazifi was not happy that they collected “only a million naira” from the victim’s father because he believed Mohammed’s father could afford more than that.

“Nazifi later called to tell me that there was a problem and that we should make sure the boy does not return home because he may have recognized him as the person who sent him on an errand. So, I went back to Kano, took Mohammed to a drain system where we killed him,” he said.

According to him, Amina knew nothing about the kidnapping because he had lied to her that the boy was his late brother’s son whose mother couldn’t keep him.

However, the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping, Nazifi denied all the allegations, saying he was being framed.

He said he had not sighted the victim for a long time despite being his father’s neighbour.

On his part, Umar Mainasara also denied taking part in the killing but confessed his role as the negotiator.

He added that he had also picked the ransom on behalf of the group.

“I don’t know who killed the boy amongst them, all I know was that Galadima took the boy to Kano. My role was to negotiate with the victim’s father which I did and I was given N150,000 as my share,” he said.

The Kaduna State Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Jalige, who paraded the suspects, said their arrest led to the recovery of N840,000 being part of the ransom the suspects collected from the parents of the boy.

Jalige said investigation revealed that Nazifi who criminally orchestrated the abduction is a neighbour to the complainant which made it easier for him to lure the child by sending him on an errand to a location where Sani Adamu was on ground to kidnap him.

He said an investigation was ongoing to unravel the identities of all those involved in the act.