Court remands mechanic over murder of ex-colonel”s son

A Lokoja Chief Magistrate’s Court has ordered the remand of one Abuh Yakubu, a motor mechanic in prison over alleged abduction and killing of Yakubu Suleiman, 24. Police prosecutor Sgt Friday Shaibu told the court that the father of the deceased, Col. Suleiman Babanawa (rtd), reported the matter on November 28, 2017 at the Divisional […]

A Lokoja Chief Magistrate’s Court has ordered the remand of one Abuh Yakubu, a motor mechanic in prison over alleged abduction and killing of Yakubu Suleiman, 24.

Police prosecutor Sgt Friday Shaibu told the court that the father of the deceased, Col. Suleiman Babanawa (rtd), reported the matter on November 28, 2017 at the Divisional Police Headquarters in Okpo.

According to Shaibu, late Yakubu was at a party in Agala-Ikeje on November 26, 2016 at about 10pm when a group of persons invaded the venue of the party and abducted Yakubu Suleiman shoving him into a Toyota Camry car. They drove away with him to an unknown destination.

The assailants, two of whom were later identified as Felix Ameh, Sunday Otene and another, now at large, criminally conspired while armed with dangerous weapons including guns to perpetrate the act, he said.

The prosecutor said while a search was on to find the abducted Yakubu, there was information that a corpse was found somewhere in Otukpa, Benue State.

When the family got there, it was found to be the corpse of Yakubu lying in a pool of his own blood with bullet wounds all over him, he said.

The Chief Magistrate, Levi Animoku, who issued the remand order on arraignment of the accused in Lokoja, yesterday, said he refused bail application by the defence counsel because the alleged crime was “heinous and horrifying”.

‘‘It is the highest crime known to the laws. Bail is not granted as a matter of course’’, he said, adding that Section 341(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) precluded the court from granting bail to the accused.