12-year-old son of police officer kidnapped, strangled

The police command in Bauchi has arrested a 20-year-old man, Rabiu Adamu, for strangling a kidnapped boy.

SP Ahmed Wakil, the command’s spokesperson, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, saying the incident occurred at Magaman Gumau, Toro LGA.

Mr Wakil said the command had arrested a kidnap and murder suspect of 12-year-old Christopher Bala in Magaman Gumau.

“The victim, who was abducted while on an errand, is the biological son of a police officer, ASP Bala Yarima, of Gumau Division, Bauchi state police command.

“Upon receiving the report, detectives from the Toro Division immediately responded to initiate a rescue operation and apprehended the perpetrator of the act.

“Preliminary investigations, which identified 20-year-old Magama Gumau resident Rabiu Adamu as the prime suspect, revealed alarming details of extortion and blood relationship between the suspect, victim, and victim’s family,” the police command said.

The suspect eventually confessed to the kidnap and tragic murder of young Christopher and also admitted to having extorted N200,000 as ransom from the victim’s father, according to the police.

“He admitted he feared that the murdered Christopher recognised him, and so he went ahead to strangle him and buried the body in a shallow grave at Bazale village hill,” Mr Wakil said.

Mr Wakil said the command had exhumed the victim’s remains, and a postmortem was conducted at the General Hospital Toro, which confirmed the cause of death as strangulation.

He said the case had been transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department for a comprehensive investigation, following a directive from police commissioner Auwal Musa.

(NAN)