The Plateau State Police Command has arrested a 17-year-old student, Elijah Anthony, over allegations that he killed his neighbour’s five -year-old child after collecting N400,000 ransom from the victim’s parents.
The suspect was paraded alongside 39 other suspects for various offences at the police command headquarters in Jos on Thursday.
It was learnt that the suspect is an SS 3 student of Manret High School in Angul D community, Jos South Local Government Area of the state.
Anthony confessed to killing his victim, Dawom Pam, who was five years old at the time of his time.
The suspect said, “They sent his (victim) elder brother to buy something and the little boy was behind him. So, I and my friend carried the boy and hid him somewhere in an uncompleted building.
“Later, the parents of the boy came looking for him and I also pretended and joined them in the search for their missing child but I did not take them to where the boy was hidden.
“Later, we demanded N5m but we were able to get N400,000. But five days later, the boy was killed. I was the one who killed him because I feared he might tell his parents that I was the one who kidnapped him if we had released him.”
The suspect who expressed regrets over the incident blamed his action on the hardship going in the country.
He said, “I was in my house when the police came and arrested me. It is hardship that drove me into kidnapping and killing. I was supposed to write WASSCE this year but I didn’t. Please, forgive me.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Okoro Julius Alawari, who paraded Anthony and 39 other suspects, disclosed that the corpse of the child had been recovered from a swampy place near the uncompleted building where he was dumped by the suspects and handed over to his parents for burial.
He said all the 39 suspects would be prosecuted when investigations were concluded.