Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure has sentenced Shehu Usman Seidu and Aliyu Suleiman Umar – to life imprisonment for kidnapping a lecturer with the Ondo State-owned Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo.
The convicts were sentenced for kidnapping, armed robbery, as well as aiding and abetting.
Seidu and Umar were convicted of three out of the seven-count charge levelled against them by the state. The convicts, who were arraigned before Justice Olusegun Odusola were arrested with the N5 million paid as ransom by the family of their victim.
The prosecution team, led by Ife Olorunfemi, told the court that the kidnapped RUGIPO lecturer was kidnapped along Utelu-Owo Road, in which N5 million was negotiated and paid by the family of the victim.
Olorunfemi added that the arrest of the convicts was made possible by the combined task force of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Police, Army and Department of State Services, DSS, in the state
He revealed that the suspects were arrested at Alayere in Akure North Local Government Area of the State, adding that the mobile phones of kidnappers were used to track them to their hideout.
The prosecutor said phone sets abandoned by the fleeing kidnappers were used in tracking them after they had collected ransom from the victim’s family