‘How I was kidnapped by political thugs in Bauchi’
In Bauchi, as crisis trailed the recent election of President Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the ruling PDP continues in the Northern states, seven gunmen allegedly kidnapped a prominent supporter of Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda, Alhaji Shehu Buba Umar, a few minutes after a political meeting with the Governor. Shehu Umar, […]
In Bauchi, as crisis trailed the recent election of President Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the ruling PDP continues in the Northern states, seven gunmen allegedly kidnapped a prominent supporter of Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda, Alhaji Shehu Buba Umar, a few minutes after a political meeting with the Governor.
Shehu Umar, who had earlier contested and lost the primary elections for the House of Representatives for the Toro/Jema’a Federal constituency in Bauchi State, was kidnapped on Saturday in his house.
Narrating his ordeal to Weekly Trust, Alhaji Shehu Umar said: “Governor Yuguda called me around 11pm. I went to his house and we discussed political issues. Someone called me with a strange number and I refused to pick the call but the phone kept ringing, so I picked the call and the caller told me that his name is Daniyanu and that he wanted to see me. I told him that I was with the governor and so he should wait for me in my house but he insisted that he wanted to come and meet me wherever I was. I then dropped the call until we finished our discussions and I came out around 1: 30am and I met them quarrelling with security men for not allowing them to enter the government house”.
Shehu Umar added that he drove straight to his house. “They followed me in and forcefully took me, all seven of them. They asked me why I influenced Bauchi delegates to vote for Goodluck Jonathan instead of Atiku Abubakar. I told them that I was not a delegate and that I did not speak to any of the delegates. At that point, they brought out a gun and a big knife with which they threatened me and took me to their car. They drove with me straight to Gida Dubu Housing Estate.”
There, he said, they brought out a knife and cut him on the neck, threatening to slaughter him. But one of them argued that they should not, but rather, break his hands. “They beat and poured three buckets of cold water on my body.” He said luckily, his brother had followed them and when he saw the house they took him to, he went to the police who stormed in, rescued him, recovering four guns, Indian hemp, knives and other weapons.
Bauchi State Police Command Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Barau, said that a case of kidnap was reported to the command and men were immediately alerted and luckily the victim was rescued and has been reunited with his family, adding that a number of arrests have been made assuring that the suspects will be charged to court as soon as police complete investigations.
Additional reports have it that the rescue mission was led personally by the State Director of the SSS and the Police Commissioner who swooped in on the area where the kidnapped politician was kept.
Meanwhile, for kidnapping the Bauchi-based politician, Shehu Buba Umar, Police in Bauchi State have arraigned seven people in court. Those arraigned include Danayanu Suwaibidu, Abdullahi Isa, Jamilu Hassan Ustaz, Yusuf Usman, Suleiman Aliyu Sambo, Abdulazeez Aliyu, and Mohammed Ahmed Dambam.
The police prosecutor, Inspector Baba Sarki Hussaini, told the court: “From the First Information Report (FIR), that the wife of the victim, Mrs Shehu Umar, had alerted her neighbour that one Mohammed Saleh who reported to the police that DaniYalu and six others had kidnapped her husband Umar Shehu and put him inside a car and left to an unknown destination. He said police on a rescue mission, traced the house of the principal accused, Daniyanu Suwaibidu and cordoned the place they searched the house are rescued the victim at and recovered one pump-action gun, one single-barrel gun, two dane guna, one Jaguar car and ropes which are contrary to section 96 sub section 274 of the penal code law and section 4 sub section 27(1) (b) (1) of the firearms Act, cap F28 laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004.
After the FIR was read, the suspects said they understood the charges and the prosecutor applied for the case to be adjourned to 15th February, to enable police to complete investigations and applied that the suspects to be remanded in prison custody. Presiding Chief Magistrate Isa Mohammed granted the application and adjourned the case to February 25 and ordered the suspects to be remanded in prison custody.