){kind=link}
An Ado Ekiti High Court in Ekiti State has handed a combined 30-year prison sentence to two university graduates, Ojo Babajide (31) and Olajide Nathaniel (35), for the kidnapping of a student from the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE).
The court found the pair guilty of kidnapping and conspiracy, sentencing them to 15 years each, 10 years for kidnapping and 5 years for conspiracy.
The sentences are to run concurrently, beginning from May 21, 2025.
The two men, who had only recently graduated at the time of the crime in March 2022, were first brought before the court on July 19, 2022.
According to the prosecution, Babajide and Nathaniel abducted Atana Emmanuel, a student and part-time hair stylist, at his salon around 7pm in Oye Ekiti.
The victim recounted that he was forced into a car, taken to an unknown location, and later transported to a hotel along Ikere Road in Ado Ekiti.
There, he was compelled to pay for the room through a mobile transfer and ordered to call family members to demand a N1 million ransom.
Emmanuel managed to raise N101,000, but when the kidnappers realized the full amount wasn’t coming, they stripped and flogged him with a horsewhip, inflicting severe bruises before letting him go.
The prosecutor, Kunle-Shina Adeyemo, presented one witness and submitted statements and a bond of release as evidence.
Defence counsel Akinola Abon urged leniency, arguing that the defendants were about to begin their National Youth Service.
However, Justice Adeniyi Familoni, in his ruling, stressed the need to impose a firm punishment, noting that kidnapping continues to plague communities despite state efforts to combat it.
“The convicts knowingly engaged in this unlawful act and must face the repercussions,” the judge ruled.