The Bauchi State Police Command has announced that it has arrested three suspects in connection with the kidnapping and killing of a 15-year-old boy, Abubakar Sadiq Suleiman.

The victim, Sadiq Suleiman, was a Senior Secondary School 2 pupil.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Kamal Abubakar, who confirmed the incident to PUNCH Metro in a telephone interview, said,

We received a report of the case of kidnapping from a complainant and our men swung into action.

We were able to arrest three suspects in connection with the crime and they are undergoing investigation. We will charge them as soon as we conclude our investigation.

It was gathered that the suspects are the victim’s neighbours and abducted and killed him after collecting N5.5m ransom from his parents.

The father of the deceased, Mohammed Suleiman, who spoke with journalists said,

On Thursday, April 2, 2020, the suspects called me on the telephone and asked if I was the father of Sadiq and I answered in the affirmative.

They told me that they abducted him and asked for N10m and that if I didn’t bring the money, they would kill him.

Mohammed said after ending the call, he called his wife and asked her where Sadiq was and she searched the house but could not find him.

He stated,

I am one of the medical doctors selected to be part of the task force fighting coronavirus in the state, so I drove back home. After two days, the abductors called me again and asked me to give them N7m.

Then, they sent me three different account numbers and asked me to deposit the money in the accounts, which I did. So, they told me that after evening prayer around 7pm, I should go and take my son at Inkil village. Later, they called me and asked me to go to Kangere, near some churches, that I would see my son. I went there with my brothers and searched for the boy, but we didn’t see him.

We came back and I received a call from the police that they had arrested three suspects in connection with the incident. They asked me to come and see them, because they confessed that they were responsible for kidnapping my son.

When I went there, I found out that one of them bought a brand new Mercedes Benz car for N2.3m; the suspects also bought three phones, each costing N160,000.

Mohammed said the police told him on Friday that the suspects had killed his son, adding that they took the security agents to the place where his remains were buried.

He added,

The police invited us to the scene, where the abductors buried my son, and the grave was dug and his body was found in it; we took it to the hospital, where a doctor certified him dead.

The doctor said in his report that Sadiq was stabbed in the neck and the assailants also hit him with something in the head. We retrieved his body, which was buried according to Islamic rites.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Medical Association, Bauchi State chapter, has condemned the abduction and killing of its member’s son.

The association, in a statement jointly signed by its Chairman and Assistant Secretary, Dr. Lamaran Dattijo and Dr Abdulmajid Ahmad, respectively, on Monday, expressed worries that such evil could be done to the family of Mohammed, who was in the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

It stated,

The NMA Bauchi received with shock the news of the gruesome murder of the son of our member by criminal elements in Bauchi metropolis on Saturday, April 11, 2020.

At this trying period, when we are battling the COVID-19 pandemic in the state, it is worrisome that our member, who is active in the field, is forced to bear the distress of kidnap and subsequent killing of his son.

It is worthy to note that the deceased, the 15-year-old son of our member, was forcefully taken from his father’s house in broad daylight and was subsequently murdered despite the payment of ransom.

The association also noted with concern that some doctors in the state had received threat messages in recent times, adding,

It is depressing to note that the community we serve has now become a source of threat to the lives of our members and their families.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.