The killers of Pa Defwan Dariye, father of a former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, have confessed that they kidnapped the deceased because they wanted to make money from his son.
One of the suspects, Abubakar Mohammed, said Jethro Nguyen, the 53-year-old indigene of Bokos in Plateau, directed him to kill the victim.
Another suspect, who identified himself as Sunday Ibrahim, also noted that the mastermind, Nguyen, hired 10 others to abduct the old man from his palace.
Parading the suspects at Force headquarters, Abuja, spokesman of the Force, Frank Mba, explained that Pa Dariye, a 93-year-old man, was held incommunicado for about eight days under unsanitary conditions.
According to him, after a protracted negotiation, a ransom of N10 million was paid to the kidnappers and rather than setting him free, he was murdered.
Mba said the incident happened in June 2020, adding that after recovering the victim’s body, detectives from the Intelligence Response Unit and other police investigators swung into action.
“This crime is laced with wickedness. He was kept and treated in a manner that was unbefitting of his status and age.”
“After a protracted negotiation, a ransom of 10 million Naira was paid to these kidnappers.
“Rather than let the innocent old man go home, the kidnappers, in addition to the trauma they made Pa Dariye to go through, in addition to the extortion of N10 million that they had successfully executed, they went on to murder Pa Dariye in cold blood.
“Within the last 30 days, the police were able to make tremendous progress that led to the arrest of the eight key suspects that played major roles in the kidnap and murder of the ex-governor’s father.
“All the suspects, except very few of them, were from the same village in Bokkos Local Government Area with the murdered victim. This perhaps explained why they took the very wicked and costly decision of murdering the old man.”
The police spokesman also said three suspects were also arrested on August 28 in a border community between Nasarawa and Taraba after months of intensive monitoring over unlawful procurement, distribution and selling of weapons to end-users who were largely criminals, kidnappers, bandits, terrorists and armed robbers.
He said the suspects would be charged to court upon the conclusion of investigation.
