Matilda Omonaiye/
Police authorities have confirmed the arrest of seven suspected kidnappers today as they announced the killing of a suspected mastermind of the kidnap of the Board Chairman, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC ) and his daughter recently.
Muhammed Mahmood and his daughter were kidnapped on April 29 around Katari Village, along the Kaduna-Abuja Highway and later released.
According to the police, four AK47 rifles and 26 rounds of live ammunition were recovered.
Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, reveals in a statement that the suspect was killed on Saturday during a shootout with operatives attached to “Operation Puff Adder”.
He stated: “A kidnapping kingpin and notorious armed robber, who recently masterminded the kidnap of the UBEC Chairman along Abuja- Kaduna road is dead.”
Mba added that the suspect, Sumaila Sule, alias Shaho, who was in his mid-thirties, was a native of Rijana village in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
He explained that the suspect died following multiple bullet wounds he sustained during the shootout.
The spokesman said that the operatives were carrying out routine surveillance when they came under attack from a heavily armed criminal gang at the outskirts of Rijana village.
In a related development, Mba said the police also arrested four members of Sule’s gang during a follow-up operation.
He identified the suspects as Musa Hassan, 26; Yau Umar, 25; Umar Musa, 22, and Muhammad Sani, 28, all natives of Rijiana village.
Mba noted that Sule and his gang members were involved in several heinous crimes along the Abuja- Kaduna highway, which placed them on the radar of the intelligence community.
He said that a combined team of security operatives had also arrested three suspected kidnappers who were terrorizing citizens at Mubi axis of Adamawa.
The suspects were named as Umaru Ibrahim, a native of Yadi Buni, Yobe; Abdul Maina, from Maiha, Adamawa, and Mohammed Abubakar from Buni Yadi, Yobe.
He also stated that the suspects had confessed to participating in several kidnapping and armed robbery operations within Adamawa, including the kidnap and collection of a ransom of N7 million from Mallam Abdulahi Umoru of Hong Local Government Area of the state.
“Investigations into these cases are on-going, while efforts aimed at arresting other members of the gangs still at large are being intensified,” he stated, adding that the acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had reassured Nigerians that the war against crimes and criminality would soon be won.
He called for continuous support for the police and other law enforcement agencies, adding that the security agencies would not rest on their oars till normalcy was restored in every part of the country.
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