The police in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, says it arrested no fewer than four suspected members of a kidnapping gang terrorising the FCT and its environs.
The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, on Sunday, disclosed in a statement that the suspects were arrested on Friday following a raid of their hideouts in the Gidan Dogo and Kweti Forest in Kaduna State, a border to the FCT.
She added that the suspects, allegedly belonging to the ‘Mai One Million’ syndicate, included two ex-convicts identified as Mohammed Mohamed and Nura Abdullahi and two others, Yahaya Abubakar and Umar Aliyu.
The PPRO stated that the suspects confessed to being responsible for a series of kidnappings and other heinous crimes in FCT and its environs.
Adeh said, “The operatives of the FCT Police Command, in synergy with the special forces of the Guards Brigade and DSS hunters, in a continued effort against criminality in the FCT, on June 7, 2024, at about 10:00 am, acting on credible intelligence, stormed some identified kidnappers camps at Gidan Dogo and Kweti Forest, Kaduna State, bordering the FCT, trailed and arrested four suspects: Yahaya Abubakar, 25 ‘m’ of Mpape, Mohammed Mohamed 32 ‘m’ of Zuba (an ex-convict), Umar Aliyu 20 and Nura Abdullahi 32 also an ex-convict at Kubwa and Zuba hills respectively.”
“The suspects freely confessed to being members of a notorious bandit syndicate with the name ‘Mai One Million’, responsible for a series of kidnappings and other heinous crimes in the FCT and its environs.”
Adeh added that some kidnapped victims who were rescued during the operation had been reunited with their families.
“The coordinated operation occasioned a shootout between the bandits and the security operatives, forcing them to scamper to safety and victims rescued. The illegally erected structures by the kidnappers in all the patrolled camps were all decimated.
“While the rescued victims have since been reunited with their families and loved ones, the FCT Commissioner of Police, CP Benneth C. Igweh, lauded the effort of the security operatives in the fight against criminality in the Nation’s Capital,” Adeh concluded.
PUNCH Metro reported on February 5 that the police arrested a 20-year-old kidnap kingpin, Buhari Muhammad, and five others in a hotel in Abuja.
The suspects, who were arrested following intelligence on their activities were said to have kidnapped one Joshua Eze.
Eze who was abducted on January 27 was subsequently rescued unhurt by operatives of the command on January 28, 2024.
Announcing the arrest of the suspects in a statement, Adeh stated that one AK-47 and N350,000 were recovered from the suspects.
