Story from Kenneth AFOR, Lagos
Mohamodu Zuberu, a 22-year-old cattle herder was on Wednesday sentenced to four years imprisonment by an Osun State Magistrates’ Court, at Osogbo for abducting a 13-year-old boy in Iwari Village.
Zuberu abducted the victim on Thursday, August 21, 2020, at Iwari village outskirts Ikoyi, headquarters of Isokan Local Government Area, Osun State to an unknown destination.
According to the prosecutor representing the police, John Idoko, Zuberu unlawfully abducted the victim and took him to a place where his relatives would not be able to reach him.
Idoko argued that the offence was contrary to and punishable under Section 364 (2) of the Criminal Code, Cap 34 Vol. II, Laws of Osun State of Nigeria, 2002.
Zuberu pleaded guilty to the one-count charge of kidnapping.
The prosecutor disclosed with facts that the accused demanded the sum of N2 million ransom from the victim’s family before he could release the teenage boy.
Idoko further disclosed that Zuberu later reduced the ransom to N350,000 from the initial N2 million adding that the convict met his waterloo in the process of obtaining the ransom from the family.
The convict pleaded for mercy when asked for comments.
In his judgment, Magistrate Opeyemi Badmus who presided on the case found the herder guilty and sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment with hard labour.”
