An Akure High Court has sentenced two men to life imprisonment for kidnapping, armed robbery, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting.
The two accused Shehu Usman Seidu and Aliyu Suleiman Umar were convicted by Justice Olusegun Odusola for kidnapping a lecturer with the Ondo State-owned Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO).
Seidu and Umar were convicted of three out of the seven-count charge levelled against them by the state.
They were arraigned for kidnapping the lecturer for ransom. Seidu and Umar were arrested with the N5 million paid as ransom by the family of their victim.
Two victims – Alhaji Suleiman Jamiu and his son – were also rescued from the den of the kidnappers.
The prosecution team, led by Ife Olorunfemi, in charge AK/99c/ 2019, said a lecturer of RUGIPO was kidnapped on Utelu-Owo Road, in which N5 million was negotiated and paid by the family of the victim.
The prosecution said the combined task force of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Police, Army and Department of State Services (DSS) set up by the state government to curb kidnapping in the state arrested the convicts at Alayere in Akure North Local Government Area.
The prosecutor said phone sets abandoned by the fleeing kidnappers were used in tracking them after they had collected ransom from the victim’s family.
Seidu and Umar were arraigned along two others for kidnapping, conspiracy and armed robbery. The Olorunfemi and Tunde Akinrele- led prosecution team called six witnesses to prove the case while the convicts testified in their own defence.
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