30th November, 2016
Two herdsmen, Usman Muhammed and Manu Saleh, on Wednesday, appeared before a Wuse Zone 2 Chief Magistrates’ Court in Abuja over alleged kidnapping.
They were later remanded in prison custody pending police investigation.
Muhammed and Saleh of Gwagwalada Village, Abuja, were arraigned on a three-count charge of criminal conspiracy, causing grievous hurt and kidnapping.
The Senior Magistrate, Mohammed Tahir, gave the order for the defendants to be remanded and adjourned hearing till Dec. 8.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Gambo Musa, told the court that one Saidu Adamu, of Gwagwalada village, Abuja, reported the matter at the Nigeria Mobile Police (Mopol) team in Abuja on Nov. 21.
Musa said that the defendants kidnapped the complainant and his son sometimes in October.
He said that the defendants later released the complainant in order to source for the ransom demanded his son’s release.
The prosecutor added that the complainant’s son also managed to escape.
He said that on Nov. 18, the defendants came back to the complainant’s house, hit his hand and head with cutlass and kidnapped his wife.
Musa said that the defendants kept the complainant’s wife in the bush for two days and demanded N1million ransom until she managed to escape.
He said that the phone used by the duo in demanding the ransom was recovered from them during police investigations.
The prosecutor said that the offence contravened Sections 97, 247 and 273 of the Penal Code.