THE police on Tuesday, paraded two persons allegedly responsible for the abduction of Reverend Father Tony Bawa in Kushin Makaranta area of Kaduna State.
The two suspects were members of a kidnapping syndicate terrorizing the northwest and north-central, 28-year-old Salisu Abdullahi and 31-year-old Babangida Usman, were arrested by Operatives of the Intelligence Response Team.
Force Public Relations, CP Frank Mba, who paraded the suspects at the Intelligence Response Team office in Abuja, noted that the gang operates with three AK 47 rifles and two GPMG.
The suspects confessed that they have carried out several operations in the area- including a case where a man, identified as Chinedu, was shot dead for struggling with them.
Abdullahi said, “Since I joined the gang, we have kidnapped two reverend fathers.
“The first Reverend Father we kidnapped, we went to his house at Kushemakaranta around 3am. We carried three guns and broke into his house. When we knocked on the door, he opened.
“He was alone in the house and didn’t struggle with us. We took him to the bush and only released him after we collected one million naira ransom.
“The second reverend father (Tony Bawa) was also taken from his house and we kept him in the bush for two weeks until his people paid N8 million ransom.
“It is not up to a year I joined the gang. I was not forced into kidnapping, I joined by myself. I was into farming and cattle rustling before I joined kidnap gang.
“I am married with three children. I have no father or mother.
“I have participated in six operations and I made N800,000 from them.
“I used the money to drink and carry women. Nobody knows I am a kidnapper in the community.
“My role in the gang is a watchman. I watch over kidnapped victims in the bush until ransom is paid for their release.
“Our leader surveys the area for prominent persons. He also gathers intelligence on victims after which he informs us on the victim to kidnap.
“One of the suspects we kidnapped was killed after N500,000 ransom was paid. He spent three days in our custody and he lived in the same area with our leader. His name is Chinedu, a businessman, and we kidnapped him from his house.
“He was killed after the ransom because he fought with one of us. Our leader asked us to kill him. He was the first person I joined them to kidnap.
“The second person was also named Chinedu, a trader. He was riding his motorbike to Kagaruko when our leader called us on the phone to give us a hint on his route.
“Our leader rode his motorbike behind Chinedu and gave us information on where he was and where we would strike.
“We abducted and took him to the bush, collected N700,000 from him and he was released.
“I do not know the name of the third victim, but we collected N700,000 from him as well. He was lured out of the market.
“He trades in ginger, so we told him we had ginger in the farm for sale and he volunteered to follow us, not knowing it was a trap.
“On the way to the farm, he was kidnapped and made to pay N700,000 ransom.
“The priest who paid N1m was the fourth victim, and the one whose people paid N8 million was the fifth. The sixth victim was picked from the farm. We collected N300,000.”
