A High Court sitting in Ondo State has sentenced to life imprisonment the seven men who were involved in the abduction of Chief Olu Falae, former secretary to the government of the federation.
Falae was kidnapped on September 2015 from his farm in Ilado Village, Akure, where he spent three days in the kidnappers’ den before a N5 million ransom was paid to the abductors in order to release him.
In Akure, the state capital, where the trial was held, the seven men, all Fulani Herdsmen, were found guilty of kidnapping the elder statesman in his farm in Ilado Village, Akure North Local Government Area on September 2015. The convicts are Abubakar Auta, Bello Jannu, Umaru Ibrahim, Masahudu Muhammed, Idris Lawal, Abdulkadir Umar, and Babawo Kato.
In reading out the sentence, Justice Williams Olamide said that their offences contravened Section 2 of the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Abduction Law, 5(1) (a) of the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Abduction Laws, Section 3(II)(b) of the Anti-Kidnapping and Abbduction Law, Section 6(b) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act, Cap RII, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and Section I(2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap RII, Vol. 14, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Justice Olamide said that the recovered ransom, phone call logs, and identification of the suspects by Falae, were some of the evidences that indicted the convicts. Consequently, the judge sentenced all seven persons to life terms each to be spent at the Olokuta Prison in Akure without an option of fine.