In the Gujba local government area of Yobe State, a 19-year-old named Mohammed Abdullahi kidnapped the 11-year-old son of a neighbor, demanded a ₦600,000 ransom, killed the boy with a drug, and subsequently buried him.
The Commissioner of Police in Yobe State, CP Ahmed Garba, paraded the suspect along with 17 others at the Police Command headquarters in Damaturu, where he voiced concerns about the resurgence of criminal activities in the state.
“Mohammed Abdullahi, a 19-year-old suspect from Buniyadi, abducted the son of their neighbour’s 11-year-old and later demanded a ransom of 600,000 naira. When the parents of the victim could not meet his demand, he later bought drugs and administered them to the victim to sleep and the victim later died. The suspect later buried the corpse in their house while his parents were away and was later apprehended by the police,” he said.
The police also pursued, detained, and paraded a 22-year-old suspect named Sani Musa, who had wounded Sheba Simon with a knife and taken her cell phone.
The suspect, Sani Musa, acknowledged perpetrating the crime in an interview with Channels Television. He said that his goal was to retrieve the cell phone rather than kill the victim.
Other suspects on the parade included house burglars, transformer vandals from the Pompomari neighborhood of the state capital, and perpetrators of rape and armed robberies, in which three AK-47 rifles and live ammo were found.
The CP, who voiced concerns over the state’s insecurity, asked the Yobe State administration to give the state’s young people opportunities for skill development and empowerment so they would be occupied and not wander the streets, use illicit substances, or wreck havoc on neighborhoods.