The Ondo State High Court in Akure remanded five criminals accused of abducting Olu Falae, the former Secretary to the Federal Government, on his 77th birthday at his farm in Ilado. The accused are: (1) Bello Jannu, (2) Umaru ibrahim, (3) Abubakar Auta, (4) Idris Lawal and (5) Masahuda Muhammed, they were arrested in the States of Ekiti, Ondo, Kogi and Niger. Abubakar Auta, who was purportedly the group’s negotiator, demanded a ransom of N823,000 for Mr. Falae from his family.
The Ondo State High Court in Akure remanded five criminals accused of abducting Olu Falae, the former Secretary to the Federal Government, on his 77th birthday at his farm in Ilado.
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The accused are: (1) Bello Jannu, (2) Umaru ibrahim, (3) Abubakar Auta, (4) Idris Lawal and (5) Masahuda Muhammed, they were arrested in the States of Ekiti, Ondo, Kogi and Niger. Abubakar Auta, who was purportedly the group’s negotiator, demanded a ransom of N823,000 for Mr. Falae from his family.
The Prosecuting Counsel, Iwarem Madueke told the court that the accused persons committed the offence in Kajola/Eyinala Community of Akure, the Ondo State capital on September, 21st the same day Mr. Falae was declared missing on his farm at Ilado.
The accused were arraigned for a five count charge including armed robbery, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting.
Prior to their arraignment, a team of policemen headed by Yusuf Abdulramon paraded the criminals before journalists.
SaharaReporters learned that a number of stolen items were recovered from the criminals including a red Bajaj Motorcycle with Registration No- KER 385 QA, as well as phones and sim cards.
Raheem Yusuf, the Counsel for the five accused criminals, was in court to protect their fundamental human rights as stipulated in the Constitution of the country.
Idris Lawal and Umaru Ibrahim described to the court how the operation was carried out and admitted that they shared the ransom for Mr. Falae with each other. However, they noted that they only received N100,000 out of the supposed N5 million released by the victim’s family to free him.
The two men revealed that Baba Uro, the ringleader of the syndicate, took the remaining ransom for himself. Currently Mr. Uro is at large and wanted by the police.
SaharaReporters obtained the charge sheet read by the prosecutor alleging that the suspects were responsible for the kidnapping and abduction of Mr. Falae as well as his ransoming.
The suspects, who spoke through a Hausa interpreter, pleaded not guilty to all charges leveled against them and also denied being members of Boko Haram.
In his ruling, Justice Olamide ordered that the suspected criminals be remanded at the Olokuta Prison and he adjourned the case until November 10th, 2015 for further hearing.
Two police sources informed SaharaReporters that the criminals belonged to a kidnapping syndicate which had been terrorizing the residents of Kogi, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo States.
According to these sources Mr. Uro, the leader of the syndicate, negotiated with Mr. Falae’s family from Abuja. Mr. Uro arranged for the ransom to be paid at a border town between Kogi and Ondo States.
The police sources also disclosed that the Police Special Intelligence Response Team (PSIRT) apprehended the criminals while two of them were nabbed by the Directorate of the State Security Service (DSS) in Lokoja.
"Mr. Falae was able to identify the suspects, because their pictures flooded most of the national dailies. He also visited them at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SAR) office in order to confirm their identities," the police source said.