The saying that one can only run, but cannot hide forever, has become proven, as Usman Hassan, a principal suspect among kidnappers who abducted and later killed an Ibadan farm owner, Mr Oluwole Agboola, has been arrested by police operatives in Ogun State Command.
Hassan is the brother of Usman Tahiru, who was a staff of late Agboola, and who confessed that he collected N50,000 as his share of the ransom paid by the family of their victim.
The suspected kidnap kingpin had fled Oyo State for Ogun, when the police operatives at Monitoring Unit of the state police command were close to his heels, and had decided to hibernate for some time.
However, the greed of getting free money from innocent victims reportedly made him to start recruiting other Fulani men, so as to form another kidnap gang in the Gateway State, according to the state police image-maker, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi on Monday, March 15, 2021.
But luck ran out on him when police detectives in the state got wind of his activity with the Fulanis being gathered as a kidnap team.
The detectives had stormed his hideout at Imala area, and promptly arrested him.
The PPRO, Oyeyemi, had said in a statement that Hassan confessed during an interrogation that he joined his brother, Tahiru Usman, and others, to carry out the kidnapping.
Oyeyemi said that when the suspect was interrogated, he spoke on how he conspired with his brother, Tahiru, and others, to kidnap their victim at Akinyele Local Government Area of Ibadan.
He also told the police that the kidnap gang members decided to kill the farm owner after collecting ransom, since they were known to him, and he could reveal them to law enforcement agents.
The PPRO said that the state Commissioner of Police, Edward A. Ajogun had directed that the suspect be transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta, from where they would be handed over to Oyo State Command where he would be interrogated further and prosecuted.
In an interview with Thenewsbearer, Hassan, who said he was living in a ghetto at Bodija Market area of Ibadan at the time of the incident, said that he was unaware of the kidnap plan, as Tahiru, his brother, just told him that day, December 28, 2020, to help him pick his three friends from Bodija Market to a junction near the farm.
Hassan said that Tahiru was the one who gave him the phone number of his friends that he invited to the farm, asking him to call them so that they could meet with him to bring them.
He said that when he brought the three friends, Tahiru asked him to buy a pack each of Rothmans and Benson cigarettes, after which he left, with N2,000 given to him by his brother.
Before he left, Hassan said he asked of where his brother was going with his friends, but was told not to bother.
“I wanted to call our elder brother living in the area, but Tahiru warned me not to call him. I also wanted to call his co-worker on the farm, Muhammadu, but he forbade me,” Hassan told Thenewsbearer.
He denied giving Tahiru N50,000 as his share of ransom, saying that it was even Tahiru who sent N20,000 to him through POS, as a loan to repair his motorcycle.
He said that he left for Badagry, Lagos State to his commercial motorcycle business, disclosing that he used to work a commercial rider in different towns in states, including Ibadan and Ogbomoso in Oyo State, Badagry in Lagos State and Ayetoro in Ogun State, among others.
Hassan said that it was Tahiru who told him that Agboola was killed because he could recognise the kidnappers as Fulani people.
He said that it was not possible that he would be the one that would tell Tahiru to kidnap his boss and kill himafter collecting ransom, remarking that his brother just wanted to indict him.
