Monday, March 31, 2025 - A Bauchi livestock trader, Abdullahi Safiyanu, has narrated how kidnappers abducted his seven-year-son and k!lled him after demanding N3m ransom.
Shuaibu Safiyanu, was kidnapped in Darazo Local Government
Area of the state on March 20, 2025 and later found d3ad in a bush.
According to Punch, the 42-year-old father narrated how
he received the news of his son's abduction.
“When we were at the livestock market, a group of young men
who usually visited the market were said to be heading towards my house. They
were coming to my house together with my son’s friend, who was a little bit
older than him,” he explained.
"It seemed they were invited by someone. The person is
still unknown to me. Before reaching my place, they met with the person who had
called them. He then told my child, Shuaibu, who was in my compound, to come
with him, claiming he wanted to send him on an errand. After speaking with my
son, he wrote a phone number on a sheet of paper and asked my son’s friend to
take it home.
"Since they were not familiar with such matters, when
he (my son’s friend) got home, he forgot to deliver the message and continued
with his normal activities. It was later that he remembered and gave me the
sheet of paper where the kidnappers had written the phone number.
"It was obviously sent to me so that I could contact
them. I then called the number and told the person who responded that a boy had
been sent to bring the phone number home. The receiver (kidnapper) said, “Yes,
I was the one who gave them the phone number.”
"He then told me that they had taken a boy with them. I
then asked, “What for?” The person on the other end said they only wanted money
and had to seize my son. When I asked again why they had taken my son and held
him hostage, they responded that if I wanted to see my son, I should send them
money
"They immediately asked if I didn’t want to see my son
alive, and that was all. That was the last statement the man made before he
suddenly ended the call. Since then, we never spoke again. Whenever I called
the phone, it was unreachable.
"First of all, I reported the matter to the police,
saying that my son had been kidnapped. I also showed the police officers the
phone number the kidnappers had provided. We then continued searching. However,
when we (police officers, my relatives and I) tried to call that particular
phone number again, it was still unreachable.
"Later, when we managed to reach them (the kidnappers)
through the phone number, we asked them what their problem was and why they had
abducted my son. They said money was their issue; they needed money. We asked
them why we should give them money since they were not known to us.
"We then asked what they would do with my son if we
didn’t give them money. They said they wouldn’t do anything to him. However,
they added that their kidnapped victims would not be released just like that
without their relatives paying a ransom.
"My brother then suggested we ask them for the ransom
amount. They said they needed N3m. After hearing this, my brother said we did
not even have N100,000. They then said they didn’t care how we would get the
money, and that we should go and look for it.
"We later bargained for N200,000, and they warned that
if we didn’t send them the money, they would kill the boy. We pleaded with them
not to kill him. The next day, we went back to the police station and the
District Head of Gabas, Musa Isah.
The next step we took was to pay for the tracking of their
location before calling them again. But before then, they directed us to a
house in Darazo Local Government Area, saying my son was kept there and that we
should take him along when we arrived. Unfortunately, when we got there, he was
nowhere to be found. Since then, we became suspicious and began to doubt if
Shuaibu was still alive.
"A day later, we continued with the negotiation over
the amount and agreed on N200,000. Then we asked them to send the account
number to receive the money. The account number they later sent belonged to one
of them.
"They called again and said it shouldn’t be sent to the
bank account. They then sent Point of Sale (PoS) account details belonging to a
PoS operator in Darazo. Before this, the police were aware. We had provided
them with the account details, and they had tracked the owner. The police then
told the PoS operator that someone would come to collect money from the
account.
"They informed him that when the person arrived, he
would be monitored. The PoS operator then informed the police that the person
had come before the money was sent, had collected N5,000 on credit, and left
his phone, saying he would return later. When he came back to collect the
money, he was arrested. As soon as he was apprehended, he threw away his SIM
card, and it couldn’t be found.
"After two days, we went out in search of my son. We
searched the house they had previously directed us to, but there was no sign of
him. In the process, I went to a nearby bush and noticed a smell with many
flies hovering around the area.
"I immediately called those who were with me and asked
if they could smell anything. They confirmed it. We kept searching and
eventually found my son’s body there. For security purposes, we stopped and
called the police to come and retrieve the body themselves.
On how he felt when he saw the corpse of his son, the father
said: “I can’t explain how I felt when I discovered my son’s corpse. It is sad
that they did not wait for the ransom before k!lling my child.”
"They used a rope to tie him around three times. We
also saw blood on the sides of his two arms. After seeing the body, I left my
brothers there and went home. We cannot say anything about that. What we know
is that we discovered blood by the two sides of his arms. That is all.
Abdullahi revealed that his wife and mother of the boy
almost fainted upon receiving news of his d3ath.
"She nearly collapsed. Until now, she is not
herself. Till date, she doesn’t eat.
Now that they have been arrested, what
punishment do you want the government to inflict on them?
Like they did to me, I want the government to do the same
to them. Everyone who has a child knows how it feels to have one. I want the
government to pay them back for what they did to me
If you were opportune to meet those who
k!lled your son, what would you tell them?
If it were when I was still hot-tempered, I would have
fought them. That was how I felt when I realised my son had been killed.
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