“He Was Dating Our Mother”: Three Brothers Remanded for Killing Mother’s Lover

We Went for Two Children in the Absence of Our Target — Kidnap Gang Leader Confesses

Umaru Usman, the suspected leader of a kidnapping syndicate, has confessed that his gang originally targeted the father of one of the abducted children but settled for the vulnerable children when the man was not at home. Usman and three others are in police custody following the dramatic rescue of the two seven-year-old victims less than 12 hours after they were taken from Ebinpejo Village via Lanlate in Ibarapa East Local Government Area. The suspects – Umaru Usman, 25; Mohammed Ibrahim Shina, 29; Abdullahi Ahmed, 28; and Sunday Idowu, 30 – were arrested in a joint operation involving the Oyo State Police Command, Amotekun Corps, local vigilantes, and hunters. The rescue came after a coordinated search mission that led security operatives deep into a forest where the kidnappers had taken the children.

Usman made the shocking disclosure in an interview with Saturday Tribune, detailing how the gang planned to abduct Alhaji Idris, a cattle owner and fellow tribesman living in the same village. However, when they arrived at Idris’s residence in the dead of the night and found him absent, they decided to take the children instead – Saliu, Idris’s son, and Mohammed, his younger brother’s son. The abduction occurred in the early hours of Saturday, June 27, when the armed gang invaded Ebinpejo Village, ransacked houses, assaulted residents, and abducted the two children before fleeing into a forest. According to Usman’s confession, the gang had waited in the bush near Maya before moving to the targeted house after midnight. “We went in and found children with their mother. We didn’t meet the fathers at home,” Usman told investigators. The suspects forced the door open, and Abdullahi brought out the two children while the mother raised an alarm that went unheeded. Barefooted and rudely awakened from sleep, the children were made to walk through the forest for over four hours before the gang rested at daybreak. They were not fed during their captivity, and no ransom demand had been made before security forces closed in.

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The Suspects and the victims

Following their arrest, the four suspects gave conflicting accounts of their involvement, each attempting to shift responsibility to the others. Usman, whom investigators identified as the coordinator of the operation, denied leading the gang and accused the other suspects of falsely implicating him. “It is true that we were arrested, but their claim that I coordinated the operation is a lie. I have never done this kind of thing before. My family has never been involved in such activities,” Usman reportedly said. He offered an unusual explanation for his involvement, claiming he acted under a spiritual influence. “I was under a spell. If I had been in my right senses, I would not have been involved.” Mohammed Ibrahim Shina, who travelled from Ilorin, Kwara State, to participate in the abduction, gave a different account. He claimed that Usman was the one who recruited him and persistently called him to join the operation. Shina said he initially resisted but eventually gave in to Usman’s persuasion. According to Shina, “He gave me an assurance that we would not be caught.” Abdullahi Ahmed, who was found with gunshot wounds during his arrest, claimed he only learned of the kidnapping plan after he had already procured the gun from Sunday Idowu. According to his confession, Usman had asked him to get a gun under the pretence of protecting cattle from thieves.

The joint security team tracked the kidnappers to their forest hideout using credible intelligence and technical surveillance. When the advancing security operatives were sighted, the hoodlums opened fire, resulting in a gun battle. The operatives responded professionally, overpowering the criminals and forcing them to flee in different directions. During the operation, Usman was arrested with gunshot wounds sustained while attempting to escape, and three mobile phones were recovered at the scene. In a follow-up operation conducted in the early hours of Saturday, Abdullahi Ahmed was also arrested with gunshot injuries believed to have been inflicted during the exchange of gunfire. Further investigations led to the arrest of Sunday Idowu, a farmer from Oja Odan in Ogun State, who allegedly provided the gun used in the operation. Idowu claimed he only knew Abdullahi and had given him the gun believing it would be used to protect cattle from thieves. “My lack of education and ignorance about the law led me into my current trouble,” he reportedly told investigators.

The two rescued children, seven-year-old Saliu and Mohammed, were immediately taken to hospital for medical attention after one of them sustained injuries during the ordeal. They have since been reunited with their families. The father of one of the victims, Mallam Idris Saliu, who was away in Bani Community at the time of the abduction, expressed shock at the incident. “I was so afraid that I could not return home that day. I came back on Sunday and was happy that the children had been rescued. I knew Umaru. We were living in the same village and I never knew he could do such a thing.”

Investigations revealed that Usman had a previous brush with the law, having allegedly killed his brother’s wife during an argument months before the kidnap operation. The incident had forced him to flee from Maya to Ilorin in Kwara State. It was during his time in Ilorin that he allegedly began planning the abduction of Alhaji Idris, his fellow tribesman. Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Olayinka Ayanlade, confirmed that the four suspects are currently assisting investigators with useful information aimed at identifying and apprehending other members of the criminal network. The Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Abimbola, has assured residents that efforts would be sustained to rid the state of criminal elements and protect lives and property.

We Went for Two Children in the Absence of Our Target — Kidnap Gang Leader Confesses

Inside the Fake Agency Scandal: Staff Detail How Adeyemi’s ‘Presidential Council’ Operated Without Work or Direction

Fresh testimony from three senior civil servants reveals the inner workings of the disputed Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) — a phantom agency that allegedly secured N1.3 billion in the national budget and operated from the Federal Secretariat for months. At the centre of the storm is Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who is facing an eight-count charge of forgery and impersonation over claims he created a fake government agency, forged presidential appointment letters, and falsely presented himself as its Director-General. The Federal Government has distanced itself from the council, with the Presidency insisting no such body exists. But Adeyemi has denied all allegations, vowing to clear his name in court and publicly accusing Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, of corruption. Now, previously undisclosed testimonies from staff deployed to the council paint a stark picture of a “do‑nothing” office where civil servants were left idle and confused.

Three senior officials — Ojo Victor, 55, an Assistant Chief Accountant; Omeh Amarachukwu, 40, an internal auditor; and Wakili Saidu, 45, an audit officer — were deployed from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) to the PFIPC in August 2025. In statements to police investigators on November 10, 2025, they described a workplace that raised immediate red flags. According to court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Adeyemi had written to the Accountant-General on April 4, 2025, requesting staff to fill positions including Principal Accountant, Accountant I, and Principal Auditor. The request was approved, and the three officers were posted on August 28. But when they resumed work on September 8, they were given a shared open office and — startlingly — no assignments, no work schedules, and no formal documentation.

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Victor told investigators, “We are three officers posted at the same time, and when we resumed on 8 September, the three of us were given an open office that the three of us were sitting down without doing anything.” He added, “I have not been documented, and no schedule has been given to me since my assumption, which I find very strange.” Wakili Saidu reported, “Since then, there has been no correspondence between me and the DG.” With nothing to do, attendance dwindled. Victor said he went in once or twice a week “just to show our face.” Amarachukwu said he only reported once a week because “we have nothing doing.” Saidu went in three days a week — Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. All three said they had never heard of the PFIPC before receiving their posting letters.

The scandal deepened when it emerged that the disputed council appears in the 2026 Appropriation Act with a N1,302,978,784 allocation. According to Daily Trust, the allocation appears on pages 50 and 51 of the budget, with N1,002,978,784 for recurrent expenditure and N300 million for capital projects. Budget line items include salary at N573,260,187, allowances and social contribution at N229,718,596, and logistics for hosting World Investment Summit 2026 at N182,500,000. The civic technology organisation BudgIT has called for an independent investigation, noting that the PFIPC did not appear as a budgeted entity in the 2023, 2024, or 2025 budgets, and asked how the agency got an office space at the Federal Secretariat and operated for over a year. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar also demanded answers, questioning who prepared the budget estimates bearing its name, which ministry submitted them, and which officials defended those estimates before the National Assembly.

The Presidency has strongly defended Gbajabiamila, stating that he was the one who first alerted security agencies to the alleged forgery. In a statement, Special Adviser Bayo Onanuga said the Chief of Staff petitioned the DSS and Police on October 17, 2025, after the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council complained about a rival body operating “at cross‑purposes” with it. Gbajabiamila wrote in his petition, “The attention of this office has been drawn to the activities of certain individuals and groups engaged in the forgery of official appointment letters purportedly issued from my office.” According to the Presidency, police investigations established that Adeyemi forged his appointment letter and official letterheads, operated 34 bank accounts including nine in the names of fictitious agencies, fraudulently opened a CBN account by misleading the OAGF, and solicited a Note Verbale from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to obtain US visas for staff. Onanuga noted that Adeyemi has a “history of fraudulent misrepresentation,” including a 2016 incident where he falsely claimed to be an “ambassador” for a UN‑affiliated group. Adeyemi, who is on police bail, is due in court on July 27.

The case is now before the Federal High Court in Abuja, and the political fallout continues. The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has called for Gbajabiamila’s suspension pending investigation. Meanwhile, BudgIT and Atiku are demanding a thorough probe into how the phantom agency secured a budget allocation. For now, the testimonies of three bewildered civil servants remain a powerful window into one of Nigeria’s most extraordinary governance scandals.

Inside the Fake Agency Scandal: Staff Detail How Adeyemi’s ‘Presidential Council’ Operated Without Work or Direction