False kidnap alarm by man who jumped bail led to mob killings in Kaduna

The Kaduna State Police Command, on Tuesday, said it had arrested the man whose false kidnap alarm led to the killing of three innocent persons at Kawo in Kaduna metropolis on Monday morning.
The Command’s Public Relation Officer, DSP Yakubu Sabo, made the disclosure in Kaduna.
Sabo said that the man, Musa Imam, was arrested about 1700hrs by Police Operatives investigating the incident.
“The mastermind, Alhaji Musa Imam, who raised the false alarm that attracted the mob who lynched the driver and incited disturbances, has been arrested.
” The Police is investigating the matter and more updates will follow in due course.” he said
The suspect had allegely raised an alarm that he was being kidnapped on Monday morning at the crowded Kawo flyover thereby attracting a mob who lynched one person the man claimed was among the kidnappers.
Two other people were allegedly shot by security agents trying to extricate themselves from the surging mob.
The Police had explained that the incident was not a kidnap attempt but that Musa was trailed by policemen from Lagos command for jumping bail in an ongoing fraud case.
It said that the suspect misled a mob in the area who lynched and set ablaze the driver conveying his sureties and set the vehicle ablaze.
“Three others were rescued from the angry mob by joint efforts of policemen reinforced with army personnel.
“Some operatives from Lagos Command came in respect of one Alhaji Musa in a fraud case.
“They came with some sureties who are his business associates who stood bail for him in Lagos.
“They tried to convince him to come to Lagos for his case but he was evading justice so they came looking for him in Kaduna.
“While the Police where putting together their papers, the three friends or sureties decided to track and put a tab on him. They met him and told him to follow them but he refused and decided to take his children to school.
“While they were following him, when they got to Kawo bridge, he came out and started shouting that they were kidnappers trailing him, that was how the driver trapped in the vehicle was lynched.
“One of them was wounded in the head and fell into a gutter, the other two escaped and were sheltered in a nearby filling station.
“The police came later and rescued them but were resisted by the thugs who became agitated when the police wanted to evacuate the suspects.
“They started throwing stones at the police and the suspects and that is why the police had to use force to evacuate them.
“The police is saddled with protection of lives, and will not hand over suspects to mobs to be lynched, so with the reinforcement from the army, we were able to evacuate the suspects.”
On the state of those attacked by the mob, Sabo said one is receiving treatment in a hospital, while the other two are in good health.