Three armed suspected Fulani kidnappers, Barri Galadima, Muhammadu Abdullahi, and Hussain Abdullah, have been arrested by the police in Osun State for attempting to abduct a fellow Fulani, Alhaji Idris Aliu.
The kidnappers were said to have earlier abducted a member of the same family and still shot him after collecting four million naira ransom.
According to the Tribune, sources hinted that they tried to do the same for his brother this time around to raise more money before Nemesis caught up with them.
The arrested criminals, who are said to have committed a dastardly act in a remote village in the state of Oyo, were detained by the Osun police on a tip from the brother state.
Before their arrest, they are said to have engaged the Osun State Police Anti-Kidnapping Team in a fierce gunfight that resulted in one policeman being injured before being apprehended by law enforcement officers.
The evil perpetrators, together with their other partners in crime numbering about 30, were said to have retreated and fled while Nemesis nabbed the three arrested.
The injured police officer, however, reportedly received medical treatment and is now in a stable state of health.
Meanwhile, State Police Commissioner CP Kehinde Longe confirmed that the Police Anti-Kidnapping Squad arrested the suspects from their hideout in a remote village in Oyo State had quashed the attempt kidnappers to abduct an Alhaji Idris Aliu who is also a Fulani.
Longe assured him that the suspects would face the full wrath of the law and that their fleeing colleagues would soon be caught and prosecuted.
Speaking with Tribune, two of the suspects, Galadima and Abdullahi confessed to the crime while the third suspect, Hussaini who is a Seriki Fulani in the Afijio Local Government area of Oyo state denied his involvement.
Abdullahi said “To tell the truth, it is a crime of kidnapping, this person Barrister Galadima, met Sarki, who gave him the number of one person who would be a good target to kidnap him.
I didn’t know the man at the time, and I don’t even know him now, but Sarki gave Barry his number.
Further, Galadima said, “We planned a kidnapping operation and called one person, we kept calling him, demanding ransom but he didn’t give it to us.
We then threatened to kidnap him if he didn’t pay us a ransom. But before we kidnap him The government came and arrested us.”
According to his own testimony, a relative of one of the captives, Yisa Aliu said: “The kidnappers abducted his brother and shot him while he was in captivity despite the payment of a ransom by the family.
“According to him, “we have had terrible experiences at the hands of the kidnappers.
They kidnapped my brother and shot him despite charging us a ransom of N4 million.
They undertook to kidnap my second brother Idrisa in order to collect money from us again.
We ran to Seriki Toyin for help.
We reported it to the anti-kidnapping police and they called off the attempt to kidnap Idrisu.
“Speaking on the matter, Alhaji Suleiman Oluwatuin, one of the Fulani leaders in the state, expressed his appreciation to the state police command for their prompt response to the distress calls.
He said, “We thank policemen for their prompt response always, the kidnappers engage the Police and shot one of them, yet the policemen arrested some of them. We thank the police personnel.
In fact, they are tarnishing the name of the Fulani and I am not happy about it.”
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