7-year-old boy dies after kidnappers injected him with chemicals

Kano Security agencies yesterday, confirmed that they had smashed a syndicate behind the abduction and murder of a minor, Aliyu Haidar Aminu, in the Kano metropolis. Director of State Security Service (SSS) in Kano State, Mr. Bassey Etang, who briefed newsmen in his office, said a combined team of the 3rd Brigade, Nigerian Army, and officers of the DSS investigated and effected the arrest of the suspects.

The suspects included Jamilu, who allegedly masterminded the operation;  Aliyu, a student of Hassan Usman Katsina  Polytechnic, Katsina; Bashir and one  Umar, whose account was used to collect the ransom from the father of the boy. Checks by Daily Sun revealed that the victim was kidnapped on March 4 while leaving his school, located at Turauni Quarters, but his lifeless  body was found  in an uncompleted building around Eastern Bye pass the next day. One of the suspects, Aliyu, said he was recruited by Jamilu, who sewed similar Islamic school uniforms for him with a view to blending with the rest of the students of the Islamic school to enable a surveillance on the victim.

He stated that he employed several methods to endear himself to the victim, such as buying him sweets and biscuits, adding that on March 4,  while the victim was departing from school, he abducted him  and moved him to a school in the neighborhood where they injected him with a chemical mixture to make him unconscious. Aliyu also confessed that though they initially demanded a ransom of N30million from the boy’s father, Alhaji Aminu, he eventually agreed to pay N2million through an account number provided by  Umar, who is based in Kaduna.

It was gathered that on March 5, at about  6a.m., the suspects called the father of the boy, ordering him to quickly pay the ransom as demanded because his son appeared sick from the injection they had given to him. Shortly after Alhaji Aminu paid the money into the prescribed bank account, the kidnappers told him to pick up his son around Eastern Bypass. When he arrived there, he did not see the assailants or his son. It was at about 4p.m on the same day that the police informed him of the recovery of the boy’s lifeless body.