A mobile phone technician who was arrested for kidnapping a nine-year-old pupil of a private school in the New Nyanya area of Nasarawa State said his intention was to use the proceeds of the crime to start a mobile phone retail outlet.
The suspect, Teleheem Kamaldeen, arrested last week by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) led by Olatunji Disu, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, had collected a N1.5 million ransom from the parents of the victim before he was nabbed.
The police not only succeeded in reuniting the pupil with his parents but they also recovered the ransom money from the suspect, who was smoked out of his hideout in the same New Nyanya area.
Kamaldeen, who spoke to newsmen in police custody, said he hatched his plan for many months before carrying out the operation on the school’s grounds on its vacation day.
He said: “I am 24 years old. I am from Ogbomosho in Oyo State. I was arrested because I kidnapped a nineyear-old boy in New Nyanya.
“I went to his school to pick him. I had monitored him for many months and looked for the opportunity to abduct him. His parents stay in my area in the same New Nyanya. I always observed when he was being driven to and from school. I had been monitoring him.
“On the day of their vacation, I went to the school and I saw that there was free entry into the premises unlike in the past. People were moving freely into and out of the school. The students were all playing around.
“I walked into the school and looked for him. I told him that his mother had paid me to teach him computer operation. He was very happy. He instantly agreed to follow me. I told them in the school that I was his computer instructor and that I wanted to go and teach him.
“I took him away and lodged him in a hotel. I went with my laptop and I taught him how to operate computer. We were enjoying with the computer till late in the night, when the battery went off and I told him that we would continue the following morning.
“While we were doing the computer work, I called his parents and told them I had had abducted their son and that they should pay me N4,000,000 (four million naira) but they negotiated it to N1,500,000 (one million, five hundred thousand naira).
“While we were in the hotel, I lied to the boy that his parents were aware that he was with me but I was actually negotiating his ransom with his parents.”
On why he abducted the young boy, the suspect said: “I am a phone repairer. At times, people would bring phones to me for repairs. When I finished repairing the phones, some would tell me to swap them with new ones for them to add more money.
“I do not have money to buy enough phones to be selling and to make swaps for these people. I had hoped to use the ransom to buy new phones that I could be selling and swapping for my customers.”
The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, warned that the police would henceforth go after school proprietors who neglect their duty of ensuring the safety of their students within and around the schools’ premises.
Mba, a Commissioner of Police, said the crime committed by Kamaldeen was reprehensible.
The police image maker said the Nigeria Police Force would henceforth not only go after criminals who abduct pupils in schools but also prosecute owners of schools where such incident.