By Joseph Edeh
Abuja – The Nigeria Police Force on Thursday said it had arrested seven suspects responsible for kidnapping and cattle rustling along the Kaduna/Abuja road.
The suspects are: Ibrahim Gurgu, 45 , a principal suspect and native of Gwagwada village in Kaduna State, Abdulazeez Idris, 40, a principal suspect and native of Kankara Local Governemnt Area of Katsina State, Shuaibu Ibrahim, 29, native of Kangini village, Kaduna State.
Others are: Ibrahim Isiyaku, 30, native of Gwagwada village, Kaduna State, Usman Datti, 30, native of Gwagwada village, Kaduna State, Kabiru Musa, 27, native of Dadume Local Government Area of Katsina State, and Haruna Umar, 24, native of Dandume Local Government Area of Katsina State.
The Force Spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood, disclosed this at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.
Moshood said that items recovered from the suspects include: one Ak 47 rifle; 2 locally made pistols; 30 rounds of live ammunition; one magazine; two military camouflage; three cutlasses and charms.
He said that the suspects were arrested by the Police Special Forces led by the Intelligence Response Team( IRT) on July 8 and 9 at different locations.
He said that the suspects had all volunteered confessional statement, admitting to the various criminal roles they played in the kidnapping of motorists along the Abuja/Kaduna road.
The spokesman said that the operations would be sustained to ensure adequate safety of lives and property of Nigerians.
“Similar operations across the highways and major roads in the country are being pursued with similar vigour and will be sustained,”he said.
On the kidnapping of six Model College students in Lagos, Moshood said efforts were ongoing to rescue them alive from their captives.
“We want to assure Nigerians that very soon we will rescue the students,”he said.
The kidnappers had given parents of the abducted students up to Tuesday last week to pay N20 million ransom for the release of each of the students.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on June 19, eight kidnap suspects responsible for several kidnappings, armed robbery and cattle rustling were arrested along the Kaduna/Abuja road.
NAN also reports that following rising cases of insecurity on the Kaduna/Abuja road, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, deployed 600 personnel to check the trend.( NAN)
