•27 firearms, 633 live ammunition recovered
Kingsley Nwezeh
The Nigeria Police said Tuesday that the operatives of the Force Intelligence Bureau Intelligence Response Team (FIB-IRT) arrested suspected killers of a lawmaker and a police officer.
It said the operatives successfully brought to a close a case of murder which seemed unresolved with the arrest of some notorious suspects involved in criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, and kidnapping in June 2022.
The arrest followed a charge on the tactical and operational squads by the Inspector-General of Police, (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba, on the need to ensure cases are investigated to a justifiable and reasonable conclusion.
The suspects, Hashimu Galadima (aka Kan-Wuka) 48, Abdulwahab Alhassan (aka Emeka) 31; Abdulwahab Ahmed (aka Dan-Mama), 35 and Alh. Modu Saleh, all of Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi State, were arrested following credible intelligence.
Parading the suspects in Abuja, Force Public Relations Officer and Deputy Supretendent of Police (CSP), Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the suspects were members of a syndicate actively involved in kidnapping and robbery operations within Bauchi state and its environs.
They confessed to the murder of one Hon. Musa Mante, a then serving member of the Bauchi State House of Assembly from Dass LGA in August 2020, and the kidnap of his two wives and one-year old daughter.
They similarly confessed to the murder of one Mallam Dahiru Suleiman and a retired Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP Garkuwa, who they claimed was a bane to their free operation in the area.
Similarly, 11 suspects who confessed to being members of an unlawful society, specifically the Black Axe Confraternity (aka Aiye) were arrested in Ekpoma, Edo State, following reports on their nefarious activities within the area.
The suspects, 22, Okosun Pascal, 24; Michael Ehineboh, 22;
Aneto Israel, 23; Destiny Uhomogiwan, 20; Bello Sunday, 27; Eramoh Akhere, 22; Osagie Adamson, 24; Okoruwa Christian, Edoghogho Wellington (all nine from Esan LGA of Edo State), 20; Momoh Kingsley, 20, from Estako West LGA of Edo State and 24 Chukwu Chukwuemeka, 24 from Nkanu West LGA of Enugu State, are all university undergraduates. Exhibits recovered from the suspects are two AK 47 Rifles, three pump action guns, one locally made pistol, two AK47 Magazines, 22 live rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, 17 rounds of 5.56mm K2 Ammunition, and 3 live cartridges.
Operatives of the FIB-IRT also apprehended the trio of Murtala Ibrahim, 37; Suleiman Rabiu, 28, and Surajo Sani (aka Mandula) 39, for kidnapping and providing information to other notorious kidnap gangs on likely victims of their crime.
The suspects, who operate within Yankwani and Kurami Towns in Bakori LGA of Katsina State carried out the kidnap of a man, his wife and two children from whom they obtained a ransom of N30 million.
An escapee from the Kuje Correctional Centre in June 2022, one Abdulrazak Isah, 27, from Ondo State, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2013 and had spent 10 years prior to his escape from the detention facility, was arrested at Tafa LGA of Kaduna State for stealing an iPad and a computer monitor from a hotel in Sabon Wuse, Niger State. The suspect thereafter sold the monitor for the sum of N5,000 and the iPad for the sum of N10,000, before his arrest.
The FIB-IRT recovered a total of 27 firearms including 10 AK rifles, one G3 rifle, eight pump action guns, three locally made pistols, three English double-barrelled guns, 633 rounds of live ammunition of different calibres, 8 expended cartridges, and one cutlass from the suspects in the course of investigations.
The Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, assured well-meaning members of the society who are stakeholders in security, of the commitment of the Nigeria Police Force to ensuring that all criminal suspects are dealt the full blow of the law upon arrest.
All the suspects will be arraigned in court on completion of investigations.
