A witness, Mohammed Buhari, has told an Ikeja High Court how he was called by three men alleged to have kidnapped a three-year-boy to drop ransom for them at Ojuelegba, Lagos.
The three men in the ongoing trial are Lima Auwal, Abdullah Usman and Seidu Abbas.
The Lagos State Government had preferred against the defendants a two-count charge of conspiracy to kidnap and kidnap.
The trio were alleged to have kidnapped the boy on November 4, 2022 at about 7. 30 p.m. on Ajayi Street, Idi-Araba, Mushin in Lagos.
The witness, while being led in evidence by the State Counsel, Mrs Titi Adeyegbe, gave an account of how he followed the kidnappers’ instructions to drop the ransom inside a tyre placed by the roadside by a vulcaniser towards Ojuelegba.
Buhari said he drove his boss, the father of the kidnapped boy (Mr Aliu Abubakar), home after the close of work.
According to him, he did not meet Abubakar’s wife and his boss’ brother, Ibrahim, at home as he was told that they had gone looking for the missing boy.
He said he joined Ibrahim to search for the boy and added that they had to sleep on the street till the following morning while looking for him.
The witness said: “Ibrahim and I went to the second street searching and we were on the street overnight but the boy was nowhere to be found.
“My boss went to report to the police and the following day, I got a text message which I showed my boss.
“The message was that, ‘Your son is with us, we needed $3,000 and N200,000.
“I later got a call and the voice said, ‘Oga, na we carry your son’. I asked if I could speak to the boy and they obliged me.”
The witness further told the court that the alleged kidnappers called him on Sunday and told him they would tell him where to get the boy if he was ready to pay the ransom.
According to him, he informed the alleged kidnappers in Hausa Language that he had only been able to raise the sum of N200,000 but they insisted he should make it N700,000.
He said: “I later told the man on the phone that I had raised N400,000 and he said he would tell me where to get the boy that I should follow their instruction.
“When I got the money, I put it inside black nylon and I got their call around 7.00 p.m. that I was with some police officers that they would not call again.
“It was around 10.00 p.m. they called again and asked if I was ready to bring the money, so I got to Iyana bus stop on their instruction.
“I was told to go to the front of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and move towards Ojuelegba Road and then told me to put the money inside a tyre by the roadside.
“He then told me to go left and get the boy.”
The witness, however, said that he did not see the boy and he passed out thereafter.
He said he did not know what happened to him as he only woke up in front of his house and saw people gathered and he was summoned to a police station.
According to him, he remembered that the second defendant (Usman) had previously asked him to show him the phone number they used in calling him but he refused.
While being cross-examined by the defence counsel, Ms Rukayat Owolabi, the witness insisted that the phone number used in calling him began with 08024 that he could not remember the total number and that he was a witness of truth.
The witness also denied being arrested with the defendants.
According to him, he had been working with the victim’s father for five years and that his boss had many titles.
“My boss is a popular person and a well-respected man in the community.
“I only know the money was N400,000 but I did not check.
“I used to see the third defendant in my boss’s house but I had never heard of him involved in any criminal act,” Buhari said.
The prosecution also informed the court that the nominal complainant petitioned the police over his incessant attack in the community.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the nominal complainant, the father of the boy, had on Feb. 7, recounted the ordeal his son went through in the hands of the alleged kidnappers.
He said the boy’s life had not been normal since then as he was traumatised when he returned from the kidnappers’ den and he could not speak well.
He told the court that the police arrested them with the ransom they collected from his driver.
Justice Adenike Coker adjourned the case until May 8, for continuation of trial.
Coker ordered that all parties involved should maintain peace in the community.
“The case is in court, you must maintain peace,” Coker said.