THE Kano State police command has said a taxi driver who was killed by some commercial motorcyclists in the town for alleged kidnapping was not a kidnapper.

This is just as the command said it has not made any arrest in connection with the killing of the taxi driver, whom it described as “innocent.”

It will be recalled that on Monday, some motorcyclists had killed a suspected kidnapper on Bayero University, Kano (BUK) road, having raised the alarm that the taxi driver had kidnapped three children.

Narrating the incident, a source told the Nigerian Tribune that on Monday evening, the suspected kidnapper, who was identified as Umar Marau-Marau, was forced to stop at Kofar Nai’sa by the motorcyclists.

Nigerian Tribune gathered from the source, who preferred anonymity, that the taxi driver alighted from his cab and started fighting the motorcyclists, but realising that they could overpower him, he rushed to his car and zoomed off.

The source said the motorcyclists, who got annoyed over his action, chased him and started calling him a kidnapper.

The angry mob did not accept his plea that he was innocent, chasing him to the house of the owner of the cab at Gadon Kaya area of Kano.

The source said the motorcyclists told youths in the area that Marau-Marau was a kidnapper, which made them to go after him, hitting him with weapons until he died.

However, contrary to the allegation levelled against the taxi driver, the police command has said no child was found with him, hence the man was not a kidnapper.

When contacted over the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Baba Mohammed Azare, confirmed the incident, adding that the allegation that the taxi driver was a kidnapper was not true.

He, however, said the police had not arrested any suspect in connection with the incident.