Malik Yahya/
Police said, today, they have arrested three suspected killers of a Catholic Seminarian, Nnadi Michael.
In a statement shared on its verified Twitter handle, police said the arrest followed months of “intensive and extensive intelligence-led operations by crack detectives of the Intelligence Response Team”.
Michael, 18, was a student at the Catholic Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Gonin Gora, Kakau in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
He was kidnapped with three others when the gang stormed the school on January 9, 2020. But while three of the kidnapped students were later freed having obtained a ransom, Michael was shot dead and his remains abandoned in a bush.
The suspects were identified as Tukur Usman ‘m’ aged 37,father of 7, Shehu Bello ‘m’ aged 40, father of 5 and Mustapha Mohammed ‘m’ aged 30, father of 1, all of Igabi LGA of Kaduna State.
The statement reads in part, “Discreet investigations so far reveal that the arrested suspects are part of a 19-man gang that also carried out the kidnap of Dr Phillip Ataga’s wife and two daughters on January 24, 2020, at Juji community in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State.
“Mrs Ataga was killed by the gang following her heroic resistance to the despicable and inhuman attempt by the leader of the gang to rape her. The suspects after killing her released the daughters and corpse of the slain woman to the family after collecting ransom.
“Further investigations reveal that the same criminal gang is responsible for the kidnap of six students and two teachers of Engravers College, Chikun LGA, Kaduna, from their school premises on October 3, 2019.
“The suspects, known to belong to a hybrid terrorist criminal network causing untold havoc in North-Central, Nigeria, have confessed to several other random operations along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway where they kidnapped, killed and robbed motorists, collecting ransom and valuables running into millions of Naira.”
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