• Court sentences monarch, sibling to life imprisonment in Ilorin 

Police in Delta State have arrested an eight armed-men syndicate in connection with the alleged kidnapping of a 43-year old woman on November 25, at about 1100hrs in Amukpe Area of Sapele Town.
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The Guardian gathered that the Police arrested the 41 years old syndicate’s gang leader, Morrison Godwin, who hails from Okpara WaterSide Community in Ethiope East council of the State. 
   
Confirming the arrest of the suspects, operating in Oghara, Sapele, Warri and environs, the Police image maker, Bright Edafe said the Police received useful information related to the kidnap of the woman kidnapped by a syndicate of armed men in a tricycle along Shell Road Sapele on November 19, 2023 at about 2100hrs, while driving in her ML-350 Mercedes Benz. 
    
Edafe said: “The victim was taken in her vehicle, which later ran out of fuel. Then, she was moved into the suspects’ operational tricycle; but was released three days after payment of N2m ransom.”  
   
He said a DECOY Squad, led by the commander ASP Julius Robinson, utilised all technically generated intelligence to arrest the perpetrators. 
The Command’s spokesperson explained that the team embarked on a sting operation assisted by the DPO Sapele which led to the arrest of the syndicate’s gang leader who confessed to the crime and revealed an intended meeting with other gang members to strategise on another kidnapping operation. 
   
“Armed with this information, the team laid an ambush at their meeting point and arrested the other gang members: Raymond Etchie, ‘m’ 46yrs who negotiated and received the said ransom; Felix Okoro ‘m’ 40yrs, who is one of the syndicate’s operational driver; Oghene Ogaga Sylvester ‘m’ 45yrs who guarded the victim; Henry Edeki ‘m’ 35yrs,  Ominike Sunday ‘m’ 23yrs, Jerusalem Sunday ‘m’ 35yrs, and Theophilus Akpofi “m” 29yrs. All suspects confessed to the crime admitting their various roles and have been identified by the victim”, he said.
   
The suspects, he stated, disclosed the location of the victim’s vehicle during interrogation, and the vehicle was later recovered at Oghara Town, Ethiope West council of the State.
   
He said the Police are out to recover the syndicate’s operational weapons, and ensure the collective safety of all and Sundry across the State.
The Commissioner of Police, Abbas has applauded the DECOY Squad for their diligence that culminated in the arrest of the kidnappers, and urged the public to always trust the Police to effectively tackle crime in the state.

MEANWHILE, a Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, yesterday, sentenced the Serikin Fulani of Kwara State, Usman Adamu, his brother and one Gidaddo Idris to life imprisonment for conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping.
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The convicts were said to have kidnapped one Abubakar Ahmad and collected N1 million as ransom after spending 20 days in their custody.  The state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP,) Idowu Ayoola charged the defendants before the court for conspiracy to kidnap and kidnap.
   
In her judgment yesterday, Justice Adenike Akinpelu confirmed that the trio were all in agreement to have committed the offence, adding that their physical presence at the kidnap scene was immaterial.

According to her, the convicts “supposedly arrested their victim claiming that he was a kidnap suspect to extort money from him.”
“I am not persuaded by the submissions of the counsel to the defendants to dismiss the two charges against them based on the fact that they were not at the scene of the incident,” she noted.
  
Akinpelu lamented: “It is saddening and disturbing that community leaders charged with the welfare of their subjects could, because of the love of money, breach the security of the same subjects. They are hereby found guilty as charged and are so convicted,” she ruled.
  
After listening to the defendants’ plea, the judge said: “By Section 15 of the Lead state Anti-Kidnapping Law, the court cannot exercise any discretion of leniency, so you are hereby sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence is to run concurrently,” she said.   She ordered that N600,000 be paid to the victim of the abduction.
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