A father and daughter were among the three suspects arrested by the police operatives in Ondo State for the abduction of 67-year old Islamic cleric, Alhaji Ibrahim Alli Bodunde.
The suspects Muinah Mohammed, Isah Bello and Aisha Bello, were paraded on Tuesday at the state police command headquarters in Akure.
Parading the suspects, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Funmilayo Odunlami, said they were arrested following the prompt action of the operatives of the command.
According to her: “On June 18, 2023, one Mrs Bodunde, around 6pm, went to the Uso Division to complain that her husband, Alli Bodunde, went to the farm and he was supposed to come back around 2.00pm but unfortunately when they did not see him, they sent two persons to the farm to look for him.
“When they got to the farm, they saw his car and his mobile phone but they could not see him. Immediately after the case was reported, the police swung into action and at the end of the day, the man was released.
“But during the investigation, we realised that the man in question is the Chief Imam of the Uso community and through our intelligence team we were able to arrest the suspects.”
One of the suspects, Isah, who spoke with newsmen, said another suspect, Mohammed, collected his SIM card from his daughter, Aisha, and used it to call the victim’s family for negotiation for the ransom.
Isah said: “My daughter (Aisha) came to me to collect my other SIM card from me. I asked what she wanted to use the SIM card for, and she didn’t give me any serious answer but since I don’t use the SIM card any longer, I gave it to her.
“I didn’t know what they used the SIM card for. I don’t know this boy (Mohammed). I didn’t know anything about the matter. I was not arrested, it was my people that told me about the matter, so I went to report myself at the Area Command Office.”
Also, Aisha admitted that she gave her father’s SIM card to Mohammed but claimed to be unaware of what he wanted to do with it.”
Odunlami said the suspects would soon be charged to court at the end of the investigation.
It would be recalled that the victim, who is the Chief Imam of the Uso Community in Owo Local Government Area of the state, was abducted about one week ago on his farm.
The Islamic cleric however, was released, after his family reportedly paid N2 million ransom to the kidnappers.