From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, yesterday, paraded 26 suspects for kidnapping, armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms and fraud, among other crimes.
The suspects, among them five women, were arrested by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IGP) across the country, for impersonation and working for various kidnap groups.
A total of 16 firearms, one AK-49 riffle, three AK 47 riffles, seven AK 47 magazines, 157 live ammunition, assorted smart phones, and N1.5 million were recovered from the suspects. At the time of their arrest.
Parading the suspects at the IRT headquarters in Abuja, Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, said one of the suspect, Abdulkareem Ibrahim, was arrested for kidnapping a nine-year-old boy from his school at new Karu, in Nassarawa state, and collected N1.5 million ransom from his parents before releasing him. He said the suspect, took advantage of the porous security situation at the school situated at new Nyanaya, to kidnap the little boy on the pretext that he was going to teach him how to use computer, which the boy gladly agreed to and followed him without being detected by teachers, staff and security of the school.
Mba, said the suspect, was arrested three days after he perpetrated the act. Also paraded was one Rakiya Baida, who pretends to be a medical doctor and works at the National hospital. The fake doctor, who wears a doctors outfit with her name in-scripted on the top with an identification card from the National hospital, specialises in obtaining goods in false pretence from innocent traders and other business operators and pays them with fake bank alert.
The suspect, an indigene of Okene, in Kogi state, and a drop out medical student from the Bayero University, Kano, had extorted huge sums of monies from her unsuspecting customers before she was eventually arrested in Abuja. Mba said that before her arrest, the suspect had duped some traders in Plateau and Kwara states, where she was jailed for some months before she was released from prison.
Also paraded was a gang of four female who specialises in providing food, drinks, weapons and sex to kidnappers and bandits in Kaduna state. One of the suspects, Maryam Abubakar, a married woman, provides the criminals with women, including two of her daughters to have sex with them on a specific amount. The suspect, who has been in the business for sometime now, said she was introduced into the trade by one of her boyfriend who is also a member of the gang. She said the money she makes from the illegal deal made her to introduce her daughters and other village girls to the criminals.
Mba said the suspects, who are still undergoing interrogation, would be charged to court after investigation is concluded.
