Police Parade 32 Suspects

Using Motor Parks to Launch Kidnap of Passengers

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

Nigeria Police yesterday paraded kidnappers, who disguise as transporters in motor parks and later kidnap their passengers.

It also paraded transnational car thieves specialised in stealing vehicles and moving it across the border to Niger Republic and Chad, refurbishing the vehicles and reselling them to Nigeria, using a specialised anti-tracking equipment to frustrate police investigations.

Parading the suspects in Abuja, Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, a Commissioner of Police, said the police had established prima facie cases against the 34 suspects including 34 males and two females.

He said the law enforcement agency recovered 11 grenades, two AK 47 rifles, one pump action rifle, three revolver pistols, 389 live ammunition and two units of anti-tracking devices.

Mba said the suspects pretend to be transporters, deceive travellers and drive them into a kidnap trap where passengers were kidnapped for ransom.

One of the suspects, Bashir Sule, 25, he said, operated in concert with multiple kidnap gangs stationed on highways between Kano, Kaduna and Katsina.

“He goes to the motor park, pretends to be a transporter, loads passengers and takes off from the park.

“Once he gets to a comfortable zone, kidnappers will swoop on the vehicle and kidnap the passengers”, he saidOn the transnational car theft, he said the suspects steal cars, sell them in Niger Republic and Chad and later repackage them and resell to Nigeria.

Mba said 15 vehicles were recovered from the suspects. He said the police would soon publish details of the vehicles for residents of Kano, Kaduna and Katsina, where the theft took place to visit the police for identification.