Kaduna State Police command has arrested 13 suspected kidnappers and killed four others during gun battles in different parts of the state.
The feat was achieved during the application of intelligence in crime fighting and control activities of the command.
Parading the arrested suspects at the headquarters of the command, the command’s public relations officer, ASP Mansir Hassan said during the period under review, the command recorded tremendous achievements in the course of investigations. He added that recoveries of different exhibits were also made.
Items recovered included two AK47 rifles, three locally made fabricated revolver rifles, two motorcycles, 15 live cartridges, 115 live ammunition 7.62mm, 4 locally made guns, three bags of dried leaves suspected to be cannabis and three types of mobile phones.
Similarly, he disclosed that on 5th May, 2023 at about 1100hrs, police detectives from the State CID, Kaduna acted on a report received from Rigachikun Division, Kaduna that on 3rd May, 2023 some suspected kidnappers stormed the residence of one Abubakar Yaro of Mamadi Layout, Rigachikun, Kaduna and kidnapped two of his children, namely – Fatima Abubakar, eight years old and Abdulrahaman Abubakar, six years old to unknown destination.
He said upon receipt of the information, a team of detectives from the Anti-Kidnapping Section of the State CID spread their dragnets in search of the kidnappers and they were tracked to their criminal hideout at various places and arrests were made.
“Auwal Saidu ‘m’ 22 years old, Junaidu Usman ‘m’ 25 years old, Jonathan Linus ‘m’ 21 years old and Muhammad Musa ‘m’ 35 years old were arrested,” he said.
He said, Auwal Saidu and Junaidu Usman were trailed and arrested at Asokoro area, FCT Abuja while Jonathan Linus and Muhammad Musa were later arrested in Kaduna and all the suspects voluntarily confessed to the crime and admitted to have collected the sum of N10million as ransom from the complainant before releasing the victims.
“Further investigation however revealed that, the operation was masterminded by Auwal Saidu who is a security guard in the residence of the complainant and being the brain behind the whole operation, he (Auwal Saidu) was therefore given the sum of N6 million while N4 million was shared among the remaining kidnappers,” he said.
Also in a press statement, he said the police arrested 13 suspects for robbery and cultism through its operatives attached to the Divisional Headquarters Sabon Gari Zaria, Kaduna.
The arrested suspects he said confessed to being members of Aiye confraternity who came from different higher institutions and parts of the country and choose Graceland area as their rendezvous for initiation.
Meanwhile, the state commissioner of police, CP Musa Yusuf Garba has commended the operatives and called on the members of the public to always report to the police or any security outfit closest to them of any suspicious individuals or groups.