*Say 139 crime suspects arrested, 154 abductees rescued
*Increasing kidnap cases have insiders’ hands in them, declares Afenifere
*Urges Tinubu to convene stakeholders’ parley
Kingsley Nwezeh and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuj
The police high command, weekend, said it had arrested one Bello Mohammed, 28, the terrorist, who killed one of the Bwari kidnap victims, Nabeeha Ariyo.
The police which announced arresting some 139 crime suspects and rescuing 154 kidnap victims in the last two weeks, said it had destroyed the camps of the bandits in the Federal Capital Territory.
Noting that said 17 arms and 604 ammunitions were recovered within the same period, the police said Mohammed, who hailed from Zamfara State, was arrested in Kaduna.
This was as Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, has said the tenor of the nation’s increasing insecurity, especially the pace of kidnapping suggested there was always an insider’s hand in it.
Afenifere, therefore, called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently convene a community/stakeholders’ meeting to tackle the increasing insecurity in the country, adding also that the continuous Fulani herders’ attacks in some parts of the country were informed by hegemony and territorial take-over of lands.
However, during interrogation, Nabeeha’s self-confessed killer owned up to being part of the gang that kidnapped the family members of Barrister Ariyo in Bwari, FCT, on January 2, 2024, and killed some kidnapped victims, including Nabeeha, daughter of the legal practitioner, on January 13, 2024, in a kidnappers’ camp in Kaduna State.
Speaking in Abuja, Force Public Relations Officer and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the recent launch of the Special Intervention Squad (SIS) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, further bolstered the security architecture of the FCT.
This, he said, had led to the arrest of 139 suspects, recovery of three GPR Chargers, two AK-47 rifles, one Type-06, four locally fabricated guns, one Berretta pistol, two Makarov pistols, four locally fabricated pump action guns, 504 pieces of AK-47 ammunition, 100 pieces of AA ammunition, as well as the rescue of 154 kidnapped victims unhurt.
Reviewing the operations of the police in the past two weeks, he said prominent among the recent successes recorded was the interception of a group of persons along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway, who were major suppliers of arms and ammunition to bandits operating in Niger, Zamfara, and Kaduna States.
A Divisional Police Officer, Tafa Division, acting on intelligence, raided one hotel in Tafa Area, Kaduna, where he arrested Bello, with the sum of N2.25m suspected to be proceeds of ransoms collected from kidnapped victims within the area.
He said the suspect, in a dramatic situation, offered N1,000,000 to induce the DPO, who rejected the offer and carried out his duty diligently.
“The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, ordered that the suspect, who also confessed to the involvement of the five neutralised bandits in Kaduna by the IRT, headed by one Mai Gemu (aka Godara), whose deadly camp had also been destroyed, be handed over to the DFI-IRT in Abuja for discreet investigations into the matter and arrest of all other culprits responsible for the dastardly act.
“The suspect is currently helping the police in their investigations,” he said.
While commending the DPO Tafa, SP Idris Ibrahim, for the commitment and professionalism displayed in the case, he further assured the people that the police would leave no stone unturned in decimating criminally-minded individuals and bequeathing to Nigerians a more secure society for all and sundry in Nigeria.
Afenifere: Increasing Kidnap Cases Have Insiders’ Hands in Them
A pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere, has said the tenor of the nation’s increasing insecurity, especially the pace of kidnapping suggested there was always an insider’s hand in it.
It, therefore, called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently convene a community/stakeholders’ meeting to tackle the increasing insecurity in the country, adding that the continuous Fulani herders’ attacks in some parts of the country were informed by hegemony and territorial take-over of lands.
National Publicity Secretary of the group, Jare Ajayi, in a statement, yesterday, said the tenor of the phenomenon “suggests that insiders have a hand in it.”
He said by insiders, the group meant people who have a relationship one way or the other with kidnap victims.
Afenifere noted that in other words, masterminds of this dastardly act, or their collaborators, could be family members, business associates or those with whom the victim has a social relationship.
Citing the recent kidnap incidents in Otu, Saki and Okaka in Oke-ogun area of Oyo State, incessant abductions in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, sacking of communities in Niger State, Afenifere asserted that there were indications that some of these incidents had signatures of insiders as conspirators or collaborators, if not masterminds.
“Also in places, where Fulani herders wreaked havoc, it had been ascertained, through some dwellers in these communities, that such a thing was done by those who were having or intend to have access to the land of those who innocently harboured them. In other words, hegemony and territorial taking-over were the motives.
“Nigerians are surely anxious to see a positive turnaround to the hardships currently in the land. It is however very important that their lives and property be secured even now, because it is a person who is alive and hearty that will enjoy whatever largesse that comes in ‘the near future’ to quote the president’s speech.
“This is where tackling the issue of insecurity now ravaging the land becomes very imperative and critical,” Afenifere stressed, saying reports in the last few days painted a gory picture of the situation.
The group lamented that the South-west, hitherto considered as relatively safe, was now a theatre of the unfortunate situation as the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Mr. Phillip Aivoji and a few others were kidnapped at Ogere, Ogun State on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway last Thursday when returning to Lagos.
Afenifere recalled that last Saturday, January 27th, gunmen attacked the residence of Chairman of Oyo State Tipper, Lorry and Quarry Park Management System, Alhaji Akeem Akintola, popularly known as KUSO at Ajiboye area, Omi Adio, Ibadan and whisked him away.
It therefore, urged President Tinubu to summon necessary political will to arrest this very ugly situation.
“Afenifere is sure that Tinubu-led government is capable of arresting the ugly phenomenon. This is why we have been suggesting the means to achieve this.
“Among the steps suggested were urgent conveyance of cluster meetings with various communities where the stakeholders would be reminded of the risks and destructions such an act was causing them.
“Government should also tell participants that henceforth, those who are caught, including collaborators, would face stiff penalties not ruling out death penalties.
“At such meetings, collaborators and informants would be there to hear that the government is now determined to be ruthless with hoodlums and terrorists.
“While that is going on, security agencies must be strengthened numerically, equipment-wise as well as in terms of remunerations and incentives – in addition to the deployment of modern technology for security purposes.”
Afenifere further reiterated its call on the president to issue an Executive Order proclaiming multi-level police forces.
