A dismissed soldier of the Nigerian Army, Galadima Sani, has taken to kidnapping, leading a gang to abduct and kill a five-year-old boy after the family had paid N5 million ransom.
SaharaReporters learnt that Lance Corporal Sani was dismissed from the Nigerian Army about five years ago for armed robbery, but the military authorities failed to hand him over to the police for prosecution.
It was gathered from a witness that the dismissed soldier abducted the five-year-old boy, identified only as Muhammad, last week.
Sources said the gang had reached out to the parents, who agreed to come with a ransom of N5 million.
It was learnt that after the money was paid, Muhammad was still killed because he reportedly recognised the dismissed soldier, Sani, who took him away to the kidnappers.
The incident was shared on Twitter by a witness, Olusegun Ogunyemi, who narrated that the dismissed soldier and the boy’s family were neighbours and the boy was killed because he recognised Sani.
He said, “Face of evil…Galadima, who kidnapped and killed his neighbours son after collecting N5 million ransom. No more under the army, he was booted out of the service long ago according to findings. The The little boy named Muhammad was reportedly kidnapped last week by his neighbour. His parents paid N5 million, but he was still killed because he recognised the neighbour that took him to the kidnappers. Please be very careful. There are evil and dangerous people out there.”
“He is not a serving army personnel, he is not a senior officer, but on the other rank. He was sent out of service for armed robbery some years back,” a commentator replied.
“Point of correction, he was a lance corporal. ‘One rope’ by army standard, he is not even ranked but ‘appointed’ note; this is one of those rogues in uniform that make Nigerians think that army officers have a hand in insecurities in Nigeria,” another said.
“Nigeria is a crime scene. The culture and religions encourage crime. How can a man be released from the army for armed robbery to the civilian world without sending him to jail? Forgiving criminals of their evil art without consequences breeds a society full of criminals,” another commentator lamented.
“Sent out of the army for robbery and he wasn’t jailed. They made it possible for him to kill that child,” another Nigerian wrote.
“Point of correction. He was a dismissed army personnel, not a serving army officer. The incident happened in my community,” another commentator, Rilwanu Abubakar, said.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig Gen Mohammed Yerima, could not be reached for comments on when the soldier was dismissed, and why he was not handed over to the police for trial.
Calls made to his line on Monday and Tuesday were not answered and a message sent to his line had yet to be replied to as of the time of filing this report.
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