A gang of kidnappers in Niger State were seconds away from carting home a N42.2 million ransom recently when they sighted a team of policemen and took to their heels, abandoning the loot.
The money, according to the police, had apparently been deposited by the families of kidnap victims at a spot as ordered by the gang as a condition for releasing their hostages.
The gang members, using the cover of night, mounted their motorcycles to go and collect the money.
But as they were about loading the money unto their motorcycles, they sighted the policemen who, acting on a tip off, had taken position at the hideout.
The gang members fled from the hideout immediately.
The money is now in the custody of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Force Criminals Intelligent and Investigations Department (FCIID) Abuja for what the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Bala Elkana, an Assistant Superintendent of Police called “discreet investigation”.
The Police spokesperson said the gang was possibly responsible for the four cases of kidnapping that occurred in neighbouring Zamfara,Kebbi and Sokoto states.
He further said that Police strongly believed that families of the victims of the gang may have been made to pay the ransom in Kontagora.
Elkana then said that crime rate has reduced in the state to the barest minimum. He attributed this development to as tactical operational strategies put in place by the command.