Sarkin Fulani of Kwara, Usman Adamu, his brother, and one Gidaddo Idris were sentenced to life in jail on Thursday by a Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, the state capital, for conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping.
The defendants were accused of kidnapping Abubakar Ahmad and demanding a ransom of N1 million before releasing him after 20 days in captivity.
The kidnapping occurred in the middle of last year.
In her judgment, Justice Adenike Akinpelu said that the trio were all in agreement to commit a crime, adding whether they were physically present at the kidnap scene was immaterial.
She said that the convicts “supposedly arrested their victim claiming that he was a kidnap suspect to extort money from him”.
Justice Akinpelu lamented that it is saddening and disturbing that community leaders charged with the welfare of their subjects could because of the love of money breach the security of the same subjects and, therefore, found them guilty as charged and are so convicted to life imprisonment.