Pat Stevens/
The Nigeria Police Force, yesterday, advised Nigerians to cooperate with kidnappers if they fall victim to avoid being killed.
The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Frank Mba, a Commissioner of Police, gave the advice in Abuja, while parading 48 suspected criminals including one 36-year-old Abubakar Haliru, who masterminded the kidnap of his cousin for ransom when he could not repay a loan from her.
Mba told journalists that operatives of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), led by DCP Olatunji Disu, arrested the suspects at different locations in the country following credible Intel.
The suspects were paraded for criminal activities such as kidnapping, culpable homicide, armed robbery, car theft, illegal possession of firearms and housebreaking amongst others at the IRT office in Guzape, Abuja.
During the parade, Mba advised members of the public, especially kidnap victims not to “struggle with their kidnappers but cooperate so as to be rescued by the police who were always on alert to combat the crime.”
MBA also noted that most kidnap victims were persons related to their captors.
He disclosed that Haliru was nabbed by the IRT for kidnapping Binta Mohammed, 48, his cousin who gave him a loan for the purchase of tricycle.
The suspect lured Mohammed to the kidnappers’ den and instructed them to extort and kill her, after he failed to repay the loan she gave him.
“Fortunately for her, she escaped from the kidnappers’ hideout in Jigawa on the first day but landed in the den of another gang of kidnappers. She was eventually able to make contact with the IRT, which led to the arrest of the suspect,” Mba said.
The police also paraded two other kidnappers, Salisu Abdullahi, 28, and Babangida Usman, 21, said to belong to a notorious kidnap gang that kidnapped a professor at ATBU Bauchi and a filling station proprietor in Kaduna State.
The same gang group was accused of kidnapping a Catholic priest, Rev Fr Tony Bawa, who was later released by the gang, among other alleged crimes.
Some exhibits recovered from the suspects, including one GPMG, three AK-47 rifles, 10 laptops and some other assorted arms and live ammunition were displayed during the parade.
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