The Plateau State Police Command has arrested a 17-year-old student, Elijah Anthony, for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of his neighbor’s five-year-old child.

Anthony, a Senior Secondary student at Manret High School in Angul D community, Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State, was among 39 other suspects paraded for various offenses at the police command’s headquarters in Jos on Thursday.

Anthony had kidnapped and collected a ransom of N400,000 from the victim’s parents before killing the child to cover his tracks.

Anthony admitted to his role in the crime. He confessed, “They sent his (the victim’s) 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 we demanded N5 million, but we were able to get N400,000. But five days later, the boy was killed. I was the one that killed him because I feared he might tell his parents that I was the one that kidnapped him if we had released him.”

He expressed regret over the incident and attributed his actions to the hardship in the country stating, “I was in my house when the police came and arrested me. It is the hardship that drove me into kidnapping and killing. I was supposed to write WAEC this year, but I didn’t. Please, forgive me.”

The State Commissioner of Police, Okoro Alawari, who paraded Anthony and the other 39 suspects, disclosed that the body of the five-year-old child had been recovered from a swampy area near the uncompleted building where he had been left by the suspects.

The body was subsequently handed over to his parents for burial.

Alawari indicated that all 39 suspects would face prosecution once the investigations are concluded.