16-year-old cattle rustler arrested over kidnapping

The Oyo State Police Command has arrested a sixteen-year-old cattle rustler, Umaru Muhammed, over kidnapping in Ibadan.

Muhammad who confessed to belonging to a kidnapping gang while responding to questions at the command headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan, said their last victim was lured to come and buy cows in Akinyele village, Akinyele Local Government Area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

• PODCAST: How Internal Wranglings Threaten To Tear PDP
• FG: Why we abandoned negotiation with kidnappers of students

The suspect who claimed to be a cattle rustler said some of his colleagues who are now at large asked him to call his customers to come and buy cows.

Relating how he was able to carry out the operation, the suspect said; “I was asked to call my customers to come and buy cows. Then, I called Taofeek and he was obliged to come and meet me at our village. But on our way to the village, we were attacked by my people.

“It was our plan to kidnap them for ransom but unfortunately the operation was foiled by some youths in the village. The operation ended in shoot-at-sight and one of the youths in the village was killed in the operation,” he said.

According to him, he had not been involved in kidnapping before but that his people do it often, many of whom he said have fled.

“They invited me to join them and they gave me the strategy to use. They threatened me that if I don’t cooperate, they would deal with me and I was forced to do as I was ordered.

“One of my people that we planned the operation together was arrested on the spot and it was his arrest that led to my arrest,” Muhammad said.

Parading the suspects before journalists, the State Police Commissioner, CP Ngozi Onadeko, gave the names of the suspects as Usman Mohammed, 27, and Umaru Mohammed, 16.

Ngozi said on 9th July 2021, one Taofeek Olaide received a phone call from one Umaru Mohammed, claiming to have cows for sale on the instruction of his father at Kara market, Akinyele area of Ibadan.