Chief Magistrate’s court sitting in Lokoja has remanded three accused persons in prison for allegedly kidnapping a Chinese national, Mr. Yang Zhengming, and collecting N5 million as ransom for his release.
The Chief Magistrate, Alhassan Husaini, who gave the order on Friday in Lokoja on arraignment of the accused described as embarrassing, the rampant cases of kidnapping in the state.
He said the negative development had become “a pandemic of some sort and a menace to our national life as a people”.
In the First Information Report (FIR) read by the persecuting police officer, Mr. C.S. Ayabatu, the offence was reported at Police Area Command, Ajaokuta on May 4, by Mr. Liu Yangxi, Director of BN Ceramics Nigeria Ltd, Ajaokuta.
He explained that at about 11:30 p.m. of April 27, a four-man gang of kidnappers later identified as the accused conspired and armed themselves with dangerous weapons to commit the offence.
The accused persons are, Muhammed Mayaki, 29, pail loader operator of Geregu village; Abdulazeez Sani, 24, motor boy ASCO Camp and Usman Abdulrahman, 31, boat driver of Geregu all of Ajaokuta.
They were said to have armed themselves with knives, cutlasses, axe, pliers and face masks and invaded the premises of the company, seized the man, blindfolded him and took him into unlawful confinement.
While holding him hostage in the living room of Muhammed Mayaki, one of the accused, they later demanded and collected N5 million to facilitate his release.
Their counsel, Muazu Abbas, orally applied for their bail, saying his application was anchored on the provisions of sections 36(5) of the Constitution and 341(2,3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
