The Adamawa State Police Command has arrested 23 men for allegedly kidnapping or threatening to kidnap people in three local government areas.
The new Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Olugbenga Adeyanju who paraded the suspects at the police command headquarters in Yola Thursday, said the offences, which the suspects committed in three groups in the separate LGAs, took place between his resumption of duty, about a week ago, and now.
He named nine suspects, charged with ‘Criminal Conspiracy and Kidnapping,’ who he said kidnapped two people: Ardo Kudla and Tela Bala of Gombi LGA last month and collected the total sum of N4.5 million from them.
“Immediately the case was reported, operatives of anti-kidnapping unit of the command, in collaboration with the local chiefs, went after the culprits and apprehended them,” the CP said, adding that two AK47 rifles, one assault rifle two single barrel guns, 468 rounds of ammunition and 25 cartridges were recovered from them.
He listed six other suspects aged between 20 and 44, who he described as specialists in kidnapping activities in Ganye LGA.
According to him, the six were rounded up on May 3, 2020 when the police got credible information of their activities.
The CP named eight suspects in a third kidnapping gang who he said are residents of Hong LGA and who conspired, called and threatened to kidnap three people, namely Nuhu Belham, Esma Arestus and Mohammed Samaila unless they paid N3 million each.
“Investigation led to the arrest of the eight suspects and they confessed committing the crime,” the police commissioner said.
Earlier in his inaugural address to the press during the press briefing in the course of which he conducted the parade of suspects, the new Adamawa State Commissioner of Police assured that all suspects would be prosecuted with due diligence.
“In my time, there will be no case of suspects being released without due process,” Olusegun Adeyanju assured.
The deployment of the new CP to Adamawa State was announced last month, April 28, when his predecessor, Audu Madaki, was deployed to the headquarters of the Nigeria Police in Abuja where Adeyanju was moved from.
