A teenage student, Benjamin Basil, who was apprehended by security operatives at a bank in Jos, the Plateau State capital, with devices suspected to be bomb explosives while trying to rob them of N100m on Tuesday narrated how kidnappers forced him into the act.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Tuesday at the Police Command headquarters in Jos where he was paraded alongside other suspects, Basi, who identified himself as a student of the Plateau State Polytechnic, said, “My name is Benjamin Basil. I’m an ND 1 student at Plateau State Polytechnic, studying Civil Engineering. I’m 17 years old and I reside opposite the Police Staff College in Jos. So, yesterday (May 13), I was on my way to school around 9 am and I was kidnapped along the way near the Police Staff College.
They (the kidnappers) instructed me to raise my shirt. When I asked them why I should raise my shirt, one of them told me that they would shoot me dead if I didn’t cooperate with them.
“I raised my hands and after a while, they told me that what they just wrapped up my waist was a suicide bomb. They searched me and took my phone and money and after a while, they gave it back to me. Thereafter, they told me that they would take me to the bank, handed over two bags to me and instructed me to bring N100m.
“They said they would be waiting for me at the gate of the bank and that if I didn’t do it, they would just shoot me dead. At this point, I wrote it down and they took advantage of the situation and that I should inform the bank cashier that I was wrapped with a suicide bomb and that 12 of their men were waiting outside with AK 47 to confront anyone in case the cashier called for help.”
Basil said the kidnappers then called a motorcyclist and paid him to convey him to the UBA branch at Dadinkowa.
According to him, “When I met the cashier inside the bank, he agreed that he wouldn’t call for help. But suddenly, I noticed that everybody in the bank started running and I was scared as I thought that the kidnappers outside had started coming inside the bank. So, I ran outside and the bank security officials dragged me down.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Emmanuel Olugbenga, who paraded Basil alongside other suspects, however, told journalists that what was wrapped on him was discovered not to be bomb explosives.
According to him, investigations into their various cases were ongoing and would be charged to court upon completion.
“The case is currently under investigation at the state CID, to ascertain the validity of his claims and arrest possible suspects”, the commissioner stated.
He commended the good and peace-loving citizens of Plateau State for collaborating with the police and feeding them with accurate, timely and useful information which, he said, helped them in their job of securing lives and property.
PUNCH
