Hashil conspired with people who pretended to be police officers and arrested and handcuffed him before driving him around town .
The police in Mombasa have released a Kenyan man suspecting of having masterminded the abduction and robbing at gunpoint of some $53,000 (N26,500,000) from Bitcoin accounts belonging to a Nigerian national (name withheld).
Police reports seen by SaharaReporters indicated that Abdulmanaf Hashil is alleged to have used his closeness with the Nigerian man who is a Bitcoin trader to rob him of the currency from his mobile telephone.
The Nigerian, who has since gone underground for fear of his life and that of his immediate family including his Kenyan wife and four-year-old son, said that he had known Hashil since he arrived in Mombasa two years ago.
“Hashil even assisted me in getting a house in Nyali where I lived with my family.He regularly visited me and we become close as family even attending family outings together,” the Nigerian said.
The Nigerian man said that last week, Hashil conspired with people who pretended to be police officers and arrested and handcuffed him before driving him around town .
“All this time they were in constant communication with a person who was giving them instructions.A gun was pointed to my head and I was ordered to reveal the mobile pin number of my Bitcoin account,” he said
He managed to break free from his abductors on the night he was hijacked after he spotted police patrolling.
“I shouted for help calling on police to come to my rescue. My abductors seemed to know their game plan well and even handed me over to police and left. I was promptly arrested and told I had broken curfew rules as it was past 10.00 pm,” he said.
He added that all this time, his wife and a neighbour were searching for him and had reported him missing at the Nyali Police station.
The abductors are said to have gotten in touch with his wife pretending to be police officers and demanded to be sent money for him to be released.
His wife obliged and sent sh50,000 to the abductors.
The second day upon his release, the Nigerian discovered that all the monies in his Bitcoin accounts had been transferred from his mobile telephone.
”I reported the matter to Nyali Police station and was issued with an OB number OB 38/17/08/2021,” he said.
SaharaReporters gathered that instead of charging Hashil to court, the police on Tuesday morning released him.
“He was supposed to be in court but was released this morning by the police. The police failed to charge him to court. Hashil even threatened the Nigerian man in the station right in presence of the police,” a source told SaharaReporters.