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The high court in Kogi state has sentenced Jibrin Halilu to death for kidnapping and killing his neighbour despite obtaining N2.5 million in ransom.
Abdul Nicodemus Awulu, the trial judge, on Tuesday, convicted Halilu of charges bordering on conspiracy and kidnapping.
The charges contravened sections 12, 6 (1), and 4 (3)(a) of the Kogi State Kidnapping and Other Related Offences Prohibition Law, 2023.
The Department of State Services (DSS) prosecutor said the convict and other members of his armed gang stormed Ever Ready hotel, Angwa-Tiv, in Obajana town and abducted the proprietor, Uche Andrew Offo, on March 23, 2023.
The prosecutor said Offo’s family paid the kidnappers the ransom as demanded.
Despite the payment, the kidnappers killed Offo.
A source within the DSS said while in captivity, Offo recognised Halilu as his neighbour, which made the kidnappers to kill him.
“Further investigations by the DSS also linked Halilu and his gang to the April 2, 2023 kidnapping of one Ibrahim Abdullahi, a resident of Oshokoshoko community in Lokoja, from whom the gang collected a N5 million ransom,” the source said.
Recently, a Katsina high court sentenced Hauwa’u Mukhtar, a female arms courier, to death by hanging for conspiracy to commit, aid and abet terrorism. The convict was arrested by DSS operatives.
In June, the federal high court in Abuja convicted four persons for their involvement in the June 5, 2022, attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo state.
Four of the five suspects initially arraigned were convicted on all nine counts preferred against them by the federal government.
The suspects — Idris Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar — were arraigned on August 11, 2022, on a nine-count terrorism charge.
