By Desire Emmanuel
A 20-year-old youth who abducted a four-year-old boy and went ahead to kill him after collecting a ransom from the boy’s father has been arrested by men of the Bauchi State Police Command.
The man, whose name was given as Rabiu Safiyanu, was arrested by police operatives attached to the ‘C’ Divisional Headquarters of the command in Bauchi metropolis following a complaint lodged by the boy’s father.
According to reports, the father, Salisu Yunusa of Nasarawa Madina Quarters, disclosed that his four-year-old son went missing on March 18 at about 9:30 a.m.
He added that as they were searching for him, he received a phone call on March 19 from a private number demanding ₦500,000 ransom and after negotiation, he eventually paid ₦100,000 but he didn’t see the boy.
The operatives swung into action after receiving the report and their investigation led to the arrest of Rabiu Safiyanu, said to be a friend of the man’s younger brother and who, due to his closeness to the family and free access to the house, used the opportunity to abduct the boy.
During his interrogation, he was said to have confessed abducting the boy, strangling him to death, dumping his corpse at Warinje Hills and demanding further ransom from the father.
“Police recovered the decomposing corpse with marks of strangulation and a rope suspected to have been used in the act. The officer in charge of Police Clinic certified the victim dead.
“The body was photographed and subsequently released to relatives and buried on site for public health safety,” the command disclosed in a statement on Sunday, March 22.
The man has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation and he is expected to be charged to court at the conclusion of the investigation.
