A 17-year-old SS3 student Elisha Anthony, who kidnapped and killed a five-year-old boy after collecting a ransom of N400,000 from the victim’s parents, has been apprehended.
According to the State Commissioner of Police, CP Julius Alawari, told newsmen at the command headquarters in Jos Plateau State on Thursday that the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the command received a phone call early this month that one Dawon Pam, a 5-year-old boy, was missing and that all searches throughout the night proved abortive.
He stated that the following day of the incident, a pair of shoes belonging to the victim was found close to a handwritten note stating that “If he wants his child, he should give Five Million Naira (N5,000,000.00) and that he should not call them but he should send a text message through the phone number below”.
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“Upon receipt of the report, a team of police operatives led by SP Okala Ugbede swung into action and was able to trace the kidnappers on Monday and arrested one of the culprits, Elijah Anthony’m’ aged 17 years of the same address, who upon interrogation admitted and confessed to having conspired with one Malic of no fixed address and kidnapped the victim from his father’s compound to an uncompleted building in the community where they kept him and tied his mouth with elastic dural cloth to stop him from shouting.
“He also confessed that after collecting the sum of Four Hundred Thousand Naira (N400,000.00) from the victim’s parents, his accomplice, the said Malic, who is now at large, strangled the victim while he held his hands and legs. Thereafter, they took the body and dumped it in a swampy place close to the uncompleted building”.
The suspect, who is a neighbour to the family of the victim, disclosed that he killed the boy because of economic hardship.
“Hardship and suffering was what prompted me to commit the crime. I later realized that the victim who happened to be my neighbour had already seen my face and might expose me if released.
“On the 13th of this month (October), my friend and I planned and kidnapped the boy while he was moving around and we hid him in an uncompleted building.
“When the parents and relatives realized that the boy was nowhere to be found, they started searching for him. I pretend as if I didn’t know where he was. I even participated in searching for him. We later demanded ransom and five days after, I killed the boy. I strangled him to death and buried him,” the suspect added.
