Falae: We were cheated out of N5m ransom –Suspect

The Department of State Services (DSS) in Abuja on Monday paraded two men suspected to have been part of the gang that abducted a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) from his farm last month on the day he clocked 77.
One of the suspects, Babawuro Kato said he and two others carried out the kidnapping to get money for Sallah celebration, but lamented that the mastermind of the kidnap did not share the N5m ransom he received with his accomplices.
Kato, who was paraded along with an alleged accomplice, Abdullahi Usman, aka Kadiri, explained that the mastermind ran away with the ransom.
The 23-year-old herdsman said that the unnamed man behind the abduction initially deceived other gang members that the Falae family asked him to come for the ransom in Abuja, adding that the suspect fled after receiving the money, shortly before the former presidential candidate was released.
Speaking in broken English, Kato said, “Three of us were involved in the kidnapping and we kidnapped the man (Falae) because we were looking for money to spend during the Sallah celebration. But the man who collected the ransom ran away with it and did not share it with us.”
The suspect, who claimed to be an indigene of Plateau State, said the gang fed their captive with loaves of bread and soft drinks.
The second suspect, Usman, however, denied involvement in the crime, saying he had been telling the DSS officials that he knew nothing about the abduction.

Read also: Falae’s abduction: Police arrests six suspects

“I am not involved in the abduction, I have been explaining to the DSS that I don’t know anything about it, but they wouldn’t listen to me,” he said in Hausa.
A DSS official, Abdulahi Garba, who paraded the suspects, said they were arrested on October 5, 2015, at J. Zebra Hotel along Ganaja Road, Lokoja, Kogi State.
He said, “The service wishes to state that the abductors were criminals and investigations have further revealed that their action was not targeted at Falae as a statesman and prominent Yoruba leader.”
Garba said it was unfortunate that the incident was being given an ethnic colouration, and urged Nigerians to live peacefully with one another and to shun “attempts by mischief-makers to give this incident an ethnic or any other colouration and use same to cause disaffection among the populace.”
He added that efforts were being intensified to bring to justice all those involved in the criminal act.

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