*Cattle rustlers also arrested
A combined team of policemen drawn from the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team and those from the Kogi State Police Command have arrested 30 notorious criminals for their alleged involvement in the abduction and murder of a Portuguese expatriate, two mobile policemen and Dangote staff.
The suspects were arrested from their different hideouts in the forest and other locations along the Abuja-Lokoja-Kabba highways.
Arms and ammunition recovered from the kidnappers include: 11 AK47 Riffles two Beretta English Pistol, two Revolver Pistol, 334 7.56mm AK47 Ammunitions, Six rounds 9mm Beretta Ammunitions and one cut to size locally made Revolver Gun. Others are two locally made Pistol, 54 rustled cattle and pairs of suspected fake military uniform.
Those arrested were identified as Yahaya Bello a.k.a Halti, Bello Tukur a.k.a Gwojor, 27, and the gang leader who led the gang that kidnapped and killed the Portuguese Expatriate, Aminu Adamu aka Kashj, 35, Abubakar Bello a.k.a Babangida 23, Bello Hassan a.k.a Nasara 35, Umar Isiaka a.k.a Baddi, 25, Abdulkadir Abubakar a.k.a Nagari, 32, Sanusi Saleh, 22, Abubakar Hassan a.k.a Kadel, 34, and Shede Zekeri, 25.
Others are members of a gang of cattle rustlers. They are Adamu Garba, 23, Adamu Bello who confessed his involvement in the killing of one Haruna Baso of Achoze and carted his cattle, Goma Hamza, 26, Isah Abarba, 20, Abdulkareem Idi ,30, Abdulwahab Idi ,22, Umoru Adamu ,21, Daniel Musa, 24, Junior Adams, 23, Sanusi Sufyanu, 26.,Usman Musa, 30, Lukman Abdulsalam, 34, Musa Yahaya Bello, 35, Ismalla Momoh, 34, Ochefije Alhaji, 23, Abuh Ali, 25, Obinna Okoai, 29, Lawrence Uchegbu, 45, Chinwale Chima, 34, and Chinedu Obi a.k.a Obison.
The suspects arrested had allegedly confessed to their various criminal roles in the commission of the crimes and admitted to have carried out several kidnappings/armed robberies attacks on innocent travellers on the Kogi-Kaba-Abuja roads including some high profile kidnap for ransom in Edo, Delta, Oyo and Ogun States.
Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Moshood Jimoh who confirmed the arrest said that it followed the directives of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris to all States Commissioners of Police to ensure that adequate security was provided throughout the Christmas and New Year festivity period and beyond.
Jimoh, a Chief Superintendent of Police, said that the directives have been yielding positive results with the number of suspected kidnap kingpins arrested during the Christmas holidays.
He said based on the directives, the team headed by Abba Kyari, an Assistant Commissioner of Police and Kogi State Police Command, working on actionable intelligence and in compliance with IGP’S directives to clamp down on highway robbers and kidnappers arrested the gang responsible for the unfortunate kidnapping and killing of a Portuguese expatriate attached to Dangote Group and two Mobile Policemen attached to him in Kogi State.
He said that though investigation is ongoing to arrest other members of the gangs at large, he stressed that those arrested have made useful statements.
According to him, the suspects would soon be arraigned in court for prosecution on completion of investigation.
He said: "In order to add new impetus to the fight against kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes in Kogi State, the Inspector General of Police recently deployed the IGP intelligence Response Team to various locations in Kogi with the firm directives that they must arrest all those responsible for the ‘kidnap for ransom’ gang on that axis."
We killed abducted Portuguese out of anger over N.6m ransom – Suspect
The prime suspect in the abduction and killing of a Portuguese construction engineer working with Dangote Construction Company said they killed the expatriate out of anger for failure to get the ransom they demanded.
Hassan Abubakar admitted that they killed their victim, Jose Machada, after about six days in captivity because the N600,000 reportedly offered to them for his release was considered “too small”.
Also paraded was one Halti Bello, a suspected kidnapper who allegedly killed a senior staff of Dangote Group, Istifanus Bello, after collecting ransom of N5 million from him for the release of a staff of the company earlier abducted by the suspect and his gang.
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