A 34year-old altar servant has been allegedly identified as the brain behind the abduction of the two Catholic Church priests in Numan LG, Adamawa State. They were said to have been kidnapped weeks ago.
The suspect, Tahamado Jonathan Demian, whose job as an altar servant, is to provide sundry services to a Roman Catholic priest while performing mass, has also been providing extra information for kidnappers, unknown to the church.
It will be recalled that the two clerics that were kidnapped; Rev. Fathers Matthew David Dusami and Abraham Samman, were part of his devious plan, I’m order to collect a ransom of N10m.
According to reports, luck ran out of Demian when he had gone to a location to pick up the N10million ransom, but later abandoned it and escaped after suspecting he could be caught.
According to the spokesperson for the Adamawa State Police Command, SP Suleiman Nguroje, he said:
“Upon suspecting that there were security operatives around, he abandoned the ransom and ran away leaving his motorcycle behind as evidence.
“Security operatives took the motorcycle and it was identified as the altar servant’s own. Thereafter his house was forced open and the two priests were found locked up in a room and rescued.”
After abandoning the ransom and fleeing the scene, was later tracked and apprehended by police operatives.
Nguroje confirmed that Demian had been taken into custody. He added that the rescued priests have since been reunited with their Catholic family.
The police spokesman further disclosed that a locally fabricated assault rifle was recovered at the crime scene.
He stated, “In a bid to ensure protection of lives and property, a safe and secured environment in the state, the command carried out a coordinated rescue operation at a particular criminal hideout situated at a remote side of Gwaida Mallam village connecting parts of Numan and Demsa LGAs.
