The Nation Newspaper

Tag: gang

  • Female led robbery gang snatches commercial bus in Edo

    Female led robbery gang snatches commercial bus in Edo

    Panic gripped major commercial transport owners in Edo State following the snatching of an 18 seater Hiace Bus belonging to Agbonifo Line Nigeria Limited by a suspected female led syndicate robbery gang dressed in fake Nurse Uniform‎.

    The vehicle with registration No: DGE 317XB and chassis No: JTFRX12PV08042624 was snatched at gun point along the Ekpoma – Agbor road after the driver of the bus Tony Nwaosa, was chartered by the said female armed robber from their park at Ekpoma in Esan West local
    government area of Edo state.

    The Driver who was Lucky to be alive after he was brutalized by the gangs of robbers spoke from his hospital and narrated his ordeal when contacted.

    He said “I was in Ekpoma at our park between the hours of 10 to 11am last week Thursday when a lady approached me that she wants to charter my bus to a village near Agbor. We agreed for a fee of N40, 000. I met my manager at Ekpoma to confirmed from my MD if I should embark on
    the trip or not and he agreed. So, the following morning (Friday) a bus was sent from Auchi which we used. Shortly after we departed from the park it occurred to me that I didn’t carry the vehicle’s manifest papers so I asked her to permit me to return to the part to pick it which
    she obliged.

    “During the course of the journey the girl was receiving several phone calls and I specifically asked her what exactly are we going to carry and she said computers which her husband that lives abroad imported. I became suspicious of her because of her conversation on phone as if
    the person was nearby. She later asked me to stop to pick somebody along the road and immediately the caller called her again that we have passed him she then asked me to park. Only for me to sight about 7 armed men from a nearby bush and they demanded the key of the bus.

    “They started beating me with the butt of their guns and blocks from an uncompleted building while the girl watched until I couldn’t remember anything that happened again. I only woke up at the hospital. That is all I can remember.”

    The Managing Director of the transport Company, Festus Okhuomose, Agbonifo, said the matter had been reported at Igbanke and Abudu Divisional Police Station.

    He corroborated the drivers account and however suspected a foul play between his manager at Ekpoma and the girl.

    While calling on security agencies in apprehending the robbers he wondered why no receipts indicating the identity of the girl was issued by his manager before allowing the chartered bus to embark on such journey.

  • Police arrest 11 ‘one million-boys’ gang members

    Eleven suspected members of One Million-Boys cult group arrested for terrorising Badagry residents in Lagos are being interrogated before being charged to court, the police said yesterday.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the suspects were apprehended while trying to rob residents of Toga area of Badagry.

    Residents of Ajara, Ibereko, Lopo and Aradagun areas of Badagry in Lagos have been living in fear because of the gang’s activities.

    Last Wednesday, The Nation reported that 40 hoodlums armed with guns and machetes always laid siege to Badagry.

    Shola Odunade, a victim, told NAN that the gang came under the pretence of seeking assistance before hitting its target.

    The hoodlums, he said, usually attacked their victims with machetes.

    He said: “I was in my house when I heard some people shouting for help and I opened my door so that I could render help. That was when they descended on me.

    “They stole my money, cellphone and laptop and they still inflicted injuries on me after they had robbed me of my valuables. There is need to beef up security around here because we are living in fear and this is not good at all.”

    Segun said he was beaten into a pulp when the hoodlums searched him and found nothing on him.

    Segun said: “I was returning from an outing when I was accosted by the gang and they demanded that I must give them everything I had on me. When they realised I did not have anything on me, they began to beat me but I just managed to escape.”

    The 11 suspects, who claimed to be students, were arrested by vigilante youths on Friday and the timely arrival of the police prevented them from being lynched by a mob.

    The police took them to the Badagry Police Station.

    A police source told NAN that the suspects would be interrogated and those found culpable would be charged to court.

    “These suspects are claiming to be students, not robbers, so we are going to interrogate them properly to get to the bottom of the matter.

    “Those of them we find culpable would be charged; we would make sure that we rid this area of hoodlums because Badagry is known to be a peaceful place and we intend to maintain that.

    “People must learn not to take laws into their hands, but always report suspected cases to the police,” the source said.

  • Fish out Mushin gang war sponsors, Alado tells police

    Fish out Mushin gang war sponsors, Alado tells police

    • I don’t breed hoodlums  

    • My children are abroad

    A Lagos socialite, Alhaji Taoheed Faronbi, popularly known as Alado, has urged the police to fish out those behind last Wednesday’s gang war in Mushin.

    Six persons injured and many vehicles were burnt in the fracas.

    In a radio interview monitored by The Nation yesterday, Faronbi said the mayhem would cease once the sponsors are arrested.

    He said: “Any time some of these hoodlums were arrested, within three months, you will see them back on the streets. Who are the people bailing them? Why do the police not charged them to court to get conviction? Why do their godfathers or sponsors not arrested? Nobody should mention my name whenever there is crisis in Mushin because I have always called on police to get the hoodlums arrested.”

    Faronbi, the Babaloja of Isolo Market said none of his children was involved in the crisis.

    “My children are in United Kingdom, United States, South Africa among others. Whoever says my children are involved in the mayhem is lying. They should check their record well,” he said.

    According to him, those who usually create chaos in Mushin are not from the area, saying that they come from far places to torment the people and run back.

    “I was born and raised in Mushin; I will allow anybody to create unnecessary tension here (Mushin). Whenever those hoodlums came attacking the people, I called the police immediately,” he said.

    Faronbi said the last fracas was not about National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) leadership fighting for park as reported, rather hoodlums coming to unleash mayhem on the people.

    The Akeem ‘No Case’ and Ilesanmi boys were said to be fighting over the control of Isolo bus stop last Wednesday.

    Both groups have always claimed to be the ‘landlords’, of the area, at the expense of commercial motorists.

    Dangerous weapons were freely used in the fight that lasted almost an hour, with motorists scampering for safety.

    Some road users took to social media to warn others about the fight, calling on the police to act immediately.

    Residents and traders urged police to come to their aid.

    They also urged the police to prosecute four members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Rasheed Adeshina (a.k.a Action), Salami Rauf, Waheed Oseni and Azeez Gbadamosi, who were allegedly arrested with the service rifle of a dead policeman, and their sponsors.

    The suspects were arrested during the raid of a bakery that they used as their armoury.

    According to a resident, the police were aware of the hoodlums’sponsors.

    He urged the police to go after the “big fish”, who provide the hoodlums with guns and weapons.

    “These boys have given the police the names of the boys and the police know them very well.

    “One of the persons, whom they said bought the AK-47 rifle and the Pump Action gun for them, is walking freely in Mushin and I wonder why he has not been arrested to explain how a police rifle was found in possession of his boys.

  • RRS recovers 18 sacks of Indian-hemp from gang

    RRS recovers 18 sacks of Indian-hemp from gang

    A FOUR-MAN gang of narcotic specialists have been arrested in Lagos by men of the state crime-fighting outfit – the Rapid Response Squad (RRS).

    The suspects were arrested at the weekend by the RSS officials who acted on a tip-off.

    They were caught with 18  sacks of substance believed to be Indian-hemp.

    The gang had until now, been allegedly terrorising residents of Oyingbo-Otto and its environs.

    The RRS team, led by Inspector Adeniba Olorunshola, arrested the suspects after a two-week surveillance in the area.

    The operatives, during the special operation, apprehended, Quadri Jimoh, 23, Tajudeen Busari, 33, Ukowa Udomma, 34 and Yakubu Mudashiru, 30, while another suspect, identified as Olumide (aka Aroso), believed to be the  gang leader, escaped.

    Two of the suspects confessed that they were not the actual dealer but that they only smoke, identifying one Olumide, who is at large, as the dealer of the recovered substance.

    “I went there to buy Indian Hemp before I found myself inside the police net. As a fashion designer, I came to Lagos about two years ago to eke out a livelihood,” Udomma said.

    Mudashiru, whose house was reportedly razed by fire some years ago, confessed that he has been a regular patron to the house where the drugs were found.

    “I have nowhere to stay after my house was razed down by fire. Since then, I have been sleeping inside motor park at Oyingbo. Truly, I went there to smoke on the fateful day,” he said.

    Addressing reporters in his office, the RRS Commander, Olatunji Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, (ACP), urged Lagos residents to always furnish the police with information.

    “With information from members of public, the work of the policemen will be easy. We cannot do it all alone as we rely much on the hints from the people”, Disu said.

    He said the manhunt for the drug kingpin would continue.

    The suspects have been transferred to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for further interrogation.

     

  • Police recover 13 vehicles from gang

    Police recover 13 vehicles from gang

    The police have smashed a four-man car robbery gang.

    The suspects are Austin Paul, 32, Chucks Ezeala, 30, Taye Ade, 51 and Gafari Kasali 26.

    Recovered from them are Toyota Camry Saloon cars with registration numbers 333131ASM,  BDG 823 DG,  AKD 825 AU, ABJ 904 AJ,  UMI 432 CG as well as Volks Wagen Vento Saloon cars marked LSD 189 CD and  LSR 829 CB. Others are Volks Wagen Golf 3 with number plate LSR 875 AV and an unregistered Volk Wagen Golf 3. They also included Volks Wagen buses marked APP 785 XJ,  FKJ 847 XH and  BDG 662 XH as well as an unregistered Volk Wagen bus. They were recovered from Enugu, Imo and Abia states.

    Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Zone II Onikan, Lagos Joseph Mbu said the suspects were caught around Ipaja in Lagos following a tip off on June 8.

    Mbu said two of the suspects – Paul and Ezeala who were first arrested by the Zonal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives  led the police to where others were nabbed.

    Mbu said Paul confessed under interrogation to have stolen many parked vehicles within Lagos and environs and sold about 13 of them to Ezeala.

    He said Ade forged customs and other vehicles papers for the stolen vehicles, adding that Kasali acted as mechanic.

    Ezeala, from Orlu in Imo State said: “My original work was repairing of electronics, but when I found out that there is quick wealth in dealing in stolen vehicles, I switched over to selling cars. I bought about 13 cars from Paul between N200,000 and N300,000 each with some having market prices of N800,000, N1.5million or more.

    “The gain was highly tempting. Initially the criminal suppliers used to tell me that they bought the cars from Cotonou but I later discovered that they were snatched but because of the money I was getting I could not back out and, to leave the gang is more dangerous because the gang members will feel unsafe and come after one’s life. My role is to sell the stolen cars. I used to get documents from Ade to enable me sell the cars. At times I used to top N20,000 or N30,000 to the price the supplier tells me to sell especially those cars that needed quick disposal.”

    Ade, an indigene of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, who is a clearing agent  at Apapa Wharf, said: “These snatchers used to lie to me that the vehicles were Tokunbo cars and just to help them get vehicle particulars to enable them sell them but with time, I discovered that they were stolen cars but because of the quick money I used to get from forging documents, we agreed to work together for the interest of every member of the gang. My role is to perfect the vehicle documents for them. I charge N10,000 for each vehicle. At times, they will tell me that two or three of the vehicles were imported. I was arrested when Chucks called me and asked me to go and collect papers from Austin for the cars he supplied. Getting there I fell into the hands of ZSARS operatives.

    Paul said: “I am a one-man car snatcher but I don’t use gun. My complete names are Okechukwu Austin Paul. I was a tanker driver before I became a car-snatcher. We used to be a two-man gang but my second, Sylvester later travelled to Malaysia. My weapon is wire which I used to move parked vehicles. My modus operandi is called park and remove but police call it removing from park. My only receiver is Chucks and he knows that the cars are stolen.

    “When he needs cars from me, he will ask me whether there is market or did I go to market? I snatched about 13 cars and gave Chucks. I used to sell snatched cars N150,000 and N200,000 each to Chucks and, at times he will not give me a dime for one or two cars I supplied him claiming that police raided his place. I have been arrested by Lagos State police SARS operatives and they recovered three cars; Ogun State Police Command SARS operatives recovered four cars while Zone II Onikan Lagos recovered 13 cars. I cannot remember the number of cars I snatched since I started this job.

  • Gang snatches N6.8m cash from filling station manager

    Gang snatches N6.8m cash from filling station manager

    Two of the eight-man gang that snatched N6.8million from the manager of a Lagos filling station have been arrested.

    They are Ayodele Ogunbiyi aka Sese (30) and Olalekan Oladipupo aka Abago (28).

    The manager was going to deposit the money in bank about 11.30am on February 3 at Morobo area along Badagry Expressway.

    According to the police, the gang operated with ‘insider’ information. The gang was said to have intercepted one Adewale, the manager of the filling station in his Toyota Camry car on his way to the bank, opened fire on him and collected the cash.

    The police said the gang converged on Agbara Motor Park where they picked up arms and ammunition before going for the operation.

    They parked their motorcycles beside the filling station where commercial motorcycles riders popularly called okada always gather.

    The moment the manager came out of the filling station, they rushed him and escaped with the money through Lusada Road.

    The suspects were arrested at Iyana-Iba, Lagos, on April 7 by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operators.

    The gang, the police said, is also notorious for robbing traders on the Cotonou route.

    Oladipupo said: “We are an eight-man gang; it was Webo that called Sese and said we should meet at Agbara Motor Park where we shared the guns.  Webo and the guy that brought the information were in the filling station. When the manager came out, I used my bike to block him but he knocked me down. FC shot him; I shot at the windscreen. Everybody shot him and Sese went and brought the money and his two blackberry phones. Webo took us to Igando and gave me N410,000, Sese was given N430,000. At Sese’s baby naming, I sprayed N220,000. Others also sprayed money. I knew Sese in Secondary school.  When we were doing pick-pocket work, if I get phone or wallet from a passenger, I pass it to Sese likewise if he gets one, he passed it over to me and I will get down at the nearest bus stop or both of us will alight together.”

    Ogunbiyi said he knew Webo at Badagry where he went to look for work.

    He said: “I was the one who went and carried the bag after he knocked down my motorcycle. I gave the bag to Webo and he gave me N430,000. My wife gave birth on February 20. I was arrested on April 7. I am a Catholic. The need for money to do naming made me go and rob. Police arrested Lekan (Oladipupo) and used him to get me at Ajangbadi bus stop where he asked me to meet him.

    “As a pick pocket expert I can pick anything of value with my fingers. Where it is difficult, I use razor blade to tear the trouser. No magic in pick-pocket job. When we sit with passengers in a bus or Keke tricycle, at a point we ask the passenger to shift touching his body with one side of my body to distract him and my hand will go for his pocket at the same time. Once I get something, I pass it to my partner or I keep it on the seat so that, if by chance the owner starts looking for it, he will see it on the seat. Where there is hot argument by the owner, passengers among whom my partners will intervene and pacify the owner.”

     

  • Two boys, three others held as navy smashes robbery gang

    Two boys, three others held as navy smashes robbery gang

    A gang that specialised in recruiting children to burgle homes in Kirikiri-Ojo, Lagos has been smashed by the Navy.

    Five members were arrested and handed over to the police.

    According to the Commander NNS WEY, Commodore Ignatius Ilaiya, they were arrested after two of the teenagers sent to break into people’s homes were intercepted by Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) WEY personnel at Navy Town, Ojo.

    The teenagers, aged13 and 15, told The Nation that they have been stealing for the group since last year.

    The duo said they were intimidated and beaten by the older members to start stealing.

    Others nabbed are Afeez Lamidi, 29; Abdulsalam Garba, 29 and Ibrahim Idris, 27.

    Three others are said to be at large.

    The teenagers confessed to have stolen N50,000, N40,000, N12,000,  N7, 000 and N5, 000 from the barracks and a motorcycle and a television set which they handed over to the others, who usually gave them N1, 000 after each operation.

    The 13-year-old said they used razor blades to cut mosquito nets on doors and windows to gain entry.

    He said: “We are four children in my family and I am from Edo State. My mother sells recharge card. These brothers (pointing at the other suspects) were the ones who forced me to start stealing.

    “Everytime they would come to our house and they would be beating me. They said they will injure me if I refused to steal and that if I tell anybody they will deal with me.

    “That is how they used to beat us and they would take us to waterside and be teaching us how to enter someone’s house and steal.

    “I have been stealing since last December.  I have stolen N50,000, N40,000, N12,000, N7,000 and N5000. We give everything we stole to them and they will give us N1000 each.

    “I usually jump fence around 6pm to check if people are around.  I was coming to meet my second (the 15-year-old) who was already inside before I was arrested that day. It is my second who usually uses blade to tear nets and we enter the house.

    “My parents do not know that I steal. I used to leave when my mother gives me money to go and buy food and I will go home late and tell them I was in my friend’s house. They do not complain whenever I go home late and I did not tell anyone that I was being forced to steal because they said they will deal with me.”

    His second said he started stealing last December 31, after “several beatings from the adults.”

    “Papa Afeez usually takes us to waterside and teach us how to steal. Initially when we refused, they would come to our house and be beating us. He warned us not to tell anyone. We have stolen money many times and also television and motorcycle.

    “I use blades to cut nets to enter people’s houses. Most times too, when we discover some people did not lock their doors, we enter their houses and steal. I do not like stealing but had to do it out of fear. They usually wait for us at the back of the fence while we go inside and steal. After stealing, we meet them at the back of the fence, give them everything and they will give us N1000 each,” he said.

    Ilaiya said the children were arrested when a Naval patrol team within the barracks suspected their movements and called them for questioning.

    He said people had been complaining about their homes being burgled, prompting the base to take measures to avert a recurrence.

    “The suspects confessed they were in the barracks to do reconnaissance so that when they return in the night to execute their plan. Through interrogation, it was discovered that they are members of a syndicate at Kirikiri. From their confessions, three others including the man who buys stolen items from them were arrested, while a certain Tonton and one Blast are currently on the run. Also the elder brother of one of the suspects, who they also claimed is a member was said to be in Badagry.  Efforts are being made to also investigate and arrest him,” Ilaiya said.

     

  • Gang of Ebele

    First meet with wisdom is like taking first breath but the Ebele gang throttles sense in the womb. Thus they mature in tedium, spinning tiresome yarns to dull the Nigerian psyche. Other sub forms of sycophancy may acknowledge their reality as blisters but Ebele’s gang, or sons if you like, manifest as cosmic aberrations to virtue; some would simply explain them away as vice-stung, currency-maddened hooligans. Many more would say that their forelock got drenched and their manhood got drowned in the torrential downpour of currency that extinguishes brilliance like embers.

    Their darksome night permits no day and their cloudy thoughts befog the dawn. Even the habitual drunk for a rare moment affects a lucid interval but Ebele’s gang never deviates into sense or somberness. Apology to Dryden. Besides their flowery drivel uttered to benumb fair logic, their insolent protestations manifest as maple shoots that shade the grave. Despite the tiresome scourge Ebele’s administration has become, Ebele’s gang never cares; like savage chthonian mutations of the grotesque, they descend on every trivia with tedious rant, forcing petty strife down our collective psyche. They want us to keep faith with Ebele and thus entrust our heartfelt dreams to the incumbent undertaker in Aso Rock.

    Femi Fani-Kayode, Doyin Okupe, Reuben Abati and company earnestly ask Nigerians to vote for Ebele. They lure Nigerians to wage infinite wars with truth and wisdom; they would like us to establish ageless monuments to Ebele in the spirit houses of flaws. These comic characters cum presidential court jesters pray that Nigerians re-elect their principal come February polls. Simply put, they want us to save their jobs. Should we? Will you?

    Its 40 days to presidential elections, but Ebele’s gang wish that we forget the Chibok girls. They want us to forget the NNPC scam, $9 million illicit arm deal, immigration job scam and death of innocent, jobless graduates. They want us to overlook Ebele’s tacit approval of Stella Oduah’s aviation cash fraud. They wish that we forget Otehgate, devaluation of the Naira and rising PMS pump prices. They urge that we applaud the shady sale of NEPA, declining standards of education and health services, bloody bomb blasts, thousands of unaccounted corpses and the persistent scourge of Boko Haram.

    In this prevalent osmosis of death and despair, the Ebele gang attempts to justify that which is unjustifiable: they mount the soapbox, garnishing prevalent ills with bouquets of insolence and desolate wit. Their love of grandstanding and pretensions to candour rankle an ominous note. It conveniently deserts when the situation demands that we actually speak truth to power; which brings to mind how we accommodated Mr. President’s justification of N16.4 billion…then N10 billion and then N6.5 billion worth of independence celebrations ‘conscientiously’ explained as follows five years ago: N950 million worth of anniversary parade; N350 million National Unity Torch tour; Special visits to orphanages, prisons and hospitals – N50 million; special session of the National Children’s Parliament – N20 million; party for 1000 children – N20 million; presidential banquet – N40 million; calisthenics performance – N50 million. Then cultural, historical and military exhibitions – N310 million; food week – N40 million; design and unveiling of 50th anniversary logo – N30 million; secretariat equipment, accommodation logistics and utilities – N320 million; special reports on Nigeria in local and international media – N1.2 billion; jingles, adverts billboards, documentary and publicity – N320 million.

    And more: accommodation and transportation of guests – N700 million; souvenirs – N450 million; variety gala night and fireworks – N210 million; international friendly football match – N200 million; design and publication of compendium on Nigeria – N400 million and security and protocol – N500 million.

    Lest we forget the presidency’s recent allocation of almost N1 billion for its meals and $1 billion (about N165 billion) to its office to fight Boko Haram. Is it just me hyper-acting or did we all somehow, somewhere along the line, irredeemably turn stupid and docile? The blood of the departed and the corpses still breathing stirs and elongates our malfeasance of nature and filth of fate. Thus today our official history, flaunting total disaster, speaks with the wind. It magnifies our defects and gives them to us gratis. It acknowledges that our afflictions are borne of individual and institutionalised folly, contemptuousness and treason. Consequently we wade through atrocious stew and stink of yesterday into the age that grudges and grieves.

    Today, the ill-wind blows certainly and quite generously across our land; it peels back every glamorous lie we decorate as truth, to reveal what is left of all that we pinch and plunder.

    And despite the tragedy we suffer, Ebele’s gang urge us to summon strength in will and number to re-enact our compulsive story of ruin and grief come February.

    As we approach the coming polls, Ebele’s gang urge us to re-elect the one who will dig deeper, our grave, and maul our bruised, chewed-off ribs till we remain nothing more than broken husks incapable of everything and small things, like casting a shadow in twilight.

    The choice is ours to make; we either choose to remain a bunch of fools and clueless agitators or we could chart fresh paths to the future of our dreams. Some of our greatest problems in this country, besides corruption, are racism and greed. However, we need not be handicapped by these. The future of Nigeria lies in our hands. It is time to heal. It is time for the Nigerian youth and electorate to take rightful place in the scheme of things.

    It’s about time we identified General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) as our candidate – the untiringly just and humane candidate. But choosing him is hardly the solution, we need to challenge him and ascertain his immunity to the madness of materialism, racism and intractable wile currently ravaging the incumbent leadership silly.

    Buhari needs to identify the demons that drive the incumbent ruling class and dispossess his mind of every vanity that could make him habitable to similar fiends. Yet he needs our support. Let us not desert him at election time for the tragedy of our generation subsists in our seemingly uncontainable prospects and our desperation to be lured, lorded over and contained, at a price.

    Let us all irrespective of personal politics and tribe, attempt to strive, united in common effort, in pursuit of a humane leader and common government sensitive to mutual thought and feeling, yet subtly separate in matters of politics and individuality.

    If this unusual and unpredictable development is to flourish amid peace and order, reciprocal respect and budding intelligence, it will call for that truest and most dependable social surgery. I advocate revolution through the ballot boxes.

    As we go to the polls, we shall experience spurious arguments by the Ebele gang; Okupe thinks Ebele is Jesus, Fani-Kayode thinks he epitomizes goodness even as Abati recounts all the ways he has made our lives better, but can you really say from personal experience, that such argument is as cogent as the offer made by the March Hare during the Mad Tea Party in “Alice in Wonderland?”

    “Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

    Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea.

    “I don’t see any wine,” she remarked.

    “There isn’t any,” said the March Hare.

  • Police nab killer gang

    The Plateau Police Command has arrested a three-man suspected killer gang allegedly terrorising residents of Bokkos local government area.

    The suspects were nabbed with various arms including three locally- made pistols, 32 cartridges and two life ammunition of 2.9mm calibre.

    Parading them at the Police Headquarters in Jos yesterday, Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), DSP Abuh Emmanuel, said: “Some residents of Butura-Gida ward of Bokkos Local government area of Plateau state contacted the Police Divisional Office in Bokkos Division using distress lines made available to them.

    “The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Bokkos division, ASP Joshua Shinto, responded promptly by leading a detachment of operatives to the scene.

    “Though the suspects had fled the scene, the police detectives were able to trace them to their hideout and arrested one of them called Hussein Aliyu.”

     

    The arrested suspect led police operatives to the other members of the gang, Seidu Aliyu and Haruna Aliyu.

    The prime suspect with gunshot wounds is said to be receiving treatment at Plateau specialist  Hospital under tight security.

     

  • Police uncover ‘gang of killers’ in Jos

    The Plateau State Police Command has uncovered a criminal gang that allegedly carried out most of the killings in Riyom and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas.

    There have been over 100 attacks in which over 300 people were killed in the last 12 months in both councils.

    The killings were always attributed to “unknown gunmen”.

    Police Commissioner Emmanuel Dipo Ayeni yesterday told reporters how the suspected were arrested.

    The police chief spoke in Jos, the state capital, on the activities of the command in the last two months.

    He said: “Based on information concerning attacks on Sopp, Jebu, Ranchol Sopp, Kwaki, Forest, Hawan Kibbo and Bangai communities in Riyom Local Government Area in early October by unknown gunmen, a team of detectives from the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) swung into action and uncovered the killer gang.

    “A gang of five, suspected to have carried out series of attacks in Riyom and its environs, was arrested by the police. Its members are: Muhammed Abdullahi, Yau Abdullahi Yarima, Jafaru Abdullahi Damina, Musa Abdulahi Damina and Abubakar Abdulahi Damina.

    “An identification parade was carried out and one of the victims of the attacks identified two members of the gang as those who attacked his parents and killed all members of his families in one of the attacks.”

    Ayeni said the suspects would be charged to court for criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide.

    The police command has, in the last two months, arrested 25 suspected armed robbers and recovered 17 stolen vehicles and 13 motorcycles.

    The police chief said: “The value of the items recovered is put at N13.4million. Twenty assorted arms and ammunition as well as cartridges were also recovered from the suspects.

    “The police command, through intelligence-based policing, has reduced crime to the barest minimum and provided the necessary environment for the interplay of law-abiding residents.”