How herdsman, others planned butcher’s kidnap, killed community youth leader in Oyo

Mohammed Umaru, a 16-year-old Fulani herdsman, recently opened up on how a gang of kidnappers co-opted him in carrying out a kidnap operation at Onidundu Community in Oyo State, at which a butcher was abducted for a ransom before he would be set free.

Umaru had made the confession on August 2, at a press briefing by the state Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko at the police headquarters at Eleyele area of Ibadan.

The police commissioner had told journalists that Umaru lured two butchers, Taofeek Olaide and Yusuf Taiwo, into the purchase of phantom cows which he claimed his father, a cattle owner, asked him to sell.

Believing that they were involved in a business transaction, the butchers had boarded a motorcycle, picked Umaru along the way as he instructed, and proceeded to a supposed ranch at Onidundu Community, where he said the cows were.

However, unknown to the butchers and the motorcycle rider, other masterminds of the kidnap, simply identified as Ibrahim, Magaji and Yellow, had laid an ambush in the bush, and welcomed them with gunshots on getting to a spot. Immediately, Taiwo, who sustained a gunshot injury, was whisked off in captivity while the bike rider and Olaide managed to escape.

Saturday Tribune gathered that Olaide, who was shaken by the incident, ran to the community to raise the alarm on the kidnap of his colleague, which made the youths and their leader, Saheed Adedokun, to move to the scene to rescue the victim. Unfortunately, they were greeted with barrage of shots, hitting Adedokun, a 37-year-old man. He was said to have been quickly rushed to a hospital where he was confirmed dead on arrival.

But the immediate efforts of a vigilante group yielded fruits when one of the gang members, Usman Mohammed, was apprehended by them shortly after. When the case was transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping Squad in Ibadan, its operatives, led by the Officer-in-Charge , CSP Olawale Tiamiyu, went into action and promptly got Umaru arrested in a forest.

One of the butchers, Olaide, was said to have pointed at Mohammed as the one who shot Taiwo and also pointed gun at him, but Mohammed denied this saying that it was Yellow who held a gun.

Findings from Umaru revealed that he was in charge of his father’s cows for rearing in Ibadan, Oyo State. Born in the state, and as a herdsman, Umaru was familiar with routes in the forest surrounding the capital city and leading to other states.

But beyond this duty, Umaru and three other men of his tribe allegedly connived to kidnap the butcher, Taiwo, in order to get a ransom.

Umaru stated that three Fulanis met him while rearing his father’s cows and told him to bring his customers who were butchers.  He said he was threatened that if he didn’t bring them they would kill him. This, he said, made him to tell a butcher that his father wanted a buyer for his cows.

Below are excepts of the interview with the two suspects, Umaru and Mohammed:

Umoru Mohammed:  “I’m Fulani but born in Ibadan. I am 16 years old, as I was told by my mother. I started rearing cows for my father some years ago. It was Ibrahim, Magaji and Yellow that suggested to me that I should look for a butcher, threatening to kill me if I didn’t. I recently met them at Kara at Akinyele area.

I didn’t know them with any vocation or business.  I just used to see them sitting within the Kara. Initially I didn’t know what they intended to do with the butcher until I took him to where I was told to come with him. I saw gun with them.

“It was Ibrahim and Yellow that told me to lie that my father had cows to sell and that he needed a buyer. A butcher that I approached looked for a buyer, who was also a butcher, and I told them that the cattle ranch was at Onidundu Community.”

Second suspect, Usman Mohammed:

“I came to Ibadan about five months ago from Kebbi State. I was in Yola, Adamawa State before coming. Yellow is from Kaduna State and Ibrahim from Kebbi. I first met Ibrahim at Kara market but knew Yellow three days before the incident.

“Yellow and Ibrahim came to me and asked me to arrange for them to kidnap my master, but I rejected the move. They later told me to come and help them pick a motorcycle taken to a bush. I went with them to pick it for keeps as instructed. It was on my way from there that I was picked by vigilante men. It was Yellow that held a gun.”

In an update, Saturday Tribune learnt that the  two suspects have been arraigned at Chief Magistrate’s Court One, Iyaganku, Ibadan, before Chief Magistrate Taiwo, in a five-count charge including conspiracy, kidnapping, murder and attempted murder.

With their pleas not taken, the Chief Magistrate ordered their remand in the correctional facility at Abolongo, Oyo town, while the case file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for legal advice.

The case was adjourned till October 11.

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