Police Arrest Siblings For Burying Teenager Alive Over N35,000 Stolen Phone

The police in Kaduna State have arrested two suspects for burying a 16-year-old boy alive in the Zaria Local Government Area of the state over a missing phone.

The 16-year-old victim, Abubakar Aliyu, was buried alive in a hole near a farm in Zaria after he was accused of stealing a phone handset belonging to one of the suspects at a construction site in Abuja.

According to a statement by the spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, Mansir Hassan, the suspects, Yahaya AbdulKadir and Abdullahi AbdulKadir, are brothers.

He said they tied the victim’s hands, sealed his mouth, and then buried him inside a hole. They left only his head outside covered with rags inside an abandoned building.

However, he was rescued by a passerby who heard him coughing.

The police said both the suspects and the victim with others were working as labourers at a building construction site in Abuja.

It was there that Abdullahi’s phone valued at N35,000 was stolen.

The victim was accused of stealing the phone. The labourers thereafter resolved that Aliyu’s daily wages would be used to buy a replacement.

Aliyu, piqued by the resolution, left Abuja and returned home. However, he was trailed to Zaria by the duo of Yahaya and Abdullahi.

The police said that the suspects later located him on Saturday, August 10th, 2024. It was then that they forcefully took him to an uncomplicated building, dug a hole, bound his hands and feet, covered his mouth with a piece of clothing, placed him inside the hole, and covered him. Only his head outside was outside.

The two suspects were later arrested by the police and they admitted to having committed the act as a form of interrogation in connection with the stolen phone.