48 Suspects Paraded Over Kidnapping, Homicide, Armed Robbery

Forty-Eight suspects were yesterday paraded in Abuja by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the police force over kidnapping, culpable homicide, armed robbery and car theft.

Parading the at the IRT Office in Guzape, Force Public Relations Officer (FPPRO) Frank and IRT Commander Tunji Disu advised kidnap victims against struggling with kidnappers to ensure safety before and during rescue by the police.

Mba, a Commissioner of Police (CP), said all those arrested and paraded suspects were criminally minded adults who had empirically been proven to have been linked with kidnap for ransom, culpable homicide, armed robbery and car theft.

According to the police spokesman, one of the suspects, Abubakar Harilu, 36, was arrested by the task team of the IRT for kidnapping and killing one Binta Mohammed, 48, a cousin of his who gave him loans to buy tricycles.

He was said to have lured his benefactor to some of his gang of kidnappers and instructed them to extort money from and kill her having failed to repay the loan she gave him as agreed.

“But fortunately for her, she escaped from the kidnappers in their hideout in Jigawa on the first day of her captivity and reported the matter to the police which led to the trailing and arrest of the suspect,” Mba said.

The IRT also paraded two other kidnappers – Salisu Abdullahi, 28, and Babangida Usman, 21, who were said to belong to a “very wicked kidnap for ransom gang” that kidnapped a professor at ATBU Bauchi and a filling station owner in Kaduna State.

The same criminal gang members were also paraded for the abduction of a Catholic Priest Rev.Fr Tony Bawa who was later released.

One of the kidnap victims, Chinedu was murdered by the gang while trying to wrestle with the leader of the gang and the priest was said to have been kidnapped by the crime suspects at Kuchin Makaranta in the Northwest.

Also arrested and paraded by the team were three armed robbery suspects – Abel Namfa, 23, Nankum Wasiu, 32 and Jonah Patrick, 25.

They were arrested by the IRT in Jos, Plateau State for robbing a man of his Toyota Corolla car and selling it to procure AK47 and other outlawed arms.

The gang members were accused of dispossesing innocent travellers for over seven years and they have all been imprisoned at one time or another before they were rearrested for robbery by IRT.

Some exhibits said to have been recovered from them include 1 GPMG, 3 AK47 rifles, 10 laptop computers and some other arms and live ammunition.

Mba, who noted that most victims of kidnap for ransom are persons related to their captors, assured that the police and other security agencies will not relent on closing in on criminally-minded persons.

He suspects will be charged to court after the completion of investigations by relevant police units.