A high court sitting in Benue State on Tuesday discharged two contractors who were arrested 18 months ago based on an allegation of attempted kidnapping levelled against them by the police.
The contractors, Terwase Agbem Paul, Chairman of TAP Group of Companies; and Mson Yaasa, were arrested in May, 2021, by a police special squad known as Operation Zenda for their “attempt to kidnap the Bursar of the Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi, Emmanuel Timothy, over his failure to pay for contracts executed by the Tap Group.
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Justice Maurice Ikpambese, in his judgement delivered on Tuesday, held that the police failed beyond reasonable doubt to prove to the court that the two men were guilty of the charge of kidnapping brought against them.
The judge also submitted that all the witnesses called by the police were tutored and told what to come and say before the court.
He added that the confessional statement of the bursar did not show anywhere that he had received any form of threat from anyone before the police broke the story to him.
Justice Ikpambese, therefore, freed the two accused, even as he frowned at the media trial of suspects by the police, and asked them to desist from such behaviour.
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