Katsina state police command has announced the arrest of two men for allegedly masterminding and planning the abduction of a friend.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Sadiq Abubakar made the announcement on Saturday. The suspects said to be bandits informants are currently in custody for conspiring and setting up their friend for abduction.
Sadiq identified the suspects as Mohammed Bello alias Dan Ali, of Sabon Gari in Ikara LGA and Abubakar Mohammed of Kumbotso LGA, Kano.
According to a statement: “On July 12, 2023, the duo criminally conspired, deceived, and lured their friend, Salmanu, to a point between Funtua and Zamfara State, where they planned with one notorious bandit leader, Gotta, hibernating in Zamfara forest, who kidnapped the victim.
“In the course of the investigation, the duo were traced and arrested in connection with the offence, and they have since confessed to the commission of the offence.”
In addition, police operatives in Katsina said they recovered one stolen Jin Cheng motorcycle from a suspected motorcycle thief, Sadiq Abdullahi, 22, of Rafin Dadi Quarters in Katsina, the state capital.
The police spokesperson said nemesis caught up with the suspect when he was accosted by men of the command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit on routine patrol along Katsina-Jibia Road while he was in possession of a white Jing Cheng motorcycle. When interrogated, the suspect confessed to having stolen the motorcycle from Ahmad Lawal Babaye of Gafai Quarters, Katsina.
Abdullahi also indicted Surajo Sani, a resident of Magamar, Jibia LGA, as the receiver of his stolen items. He mentioned Sani Abba, alias Uban Shegu, of Kofar Yandaka Quarters, Katsina, and Hamisu Mamman as his abettors.
Meanwhile in another news…
A kidnap victim identified as Lucy Jeremiah displayed uncommon bravery by escaping from the hideout her kidnappers kept her in the bush.
The woman, who was traveling in a vehicle to Jos, Plateau State had been abducted by a nine-man kidnap gang. She narrated how she wrestled the gunmen to escape from the bush where she was held captive.
Thekidnappers abducted Jeremiah and three other victims while they were travelling from Abuja to Plateau on Thursday.
Plateau State Police Command spokesperson, Alabo Alfred, confirmed the incident, and disclosed that all rescued victims had been taken to a hospital for treatment.
Lucy, who narrated the story while still traumatised, told The Punch that as they went deep into the forest, she came up with an escape plan, but the others were afraid.
She said; What happened was that we were coming back from Abuja to Jos in a vehicle last Thursday. On getting to the Government Science School, Kuru, in the Jos South LGA of Plateau State around 6pm, though I was sleeping in the vehicle, I woke up when the vehicle suddenly stopped. When I woke up, I saw a man wielding a gun. He opened the door and said we should give him our phones.
He collected all our phones and money. He thereafter selected four of us in the vehicle and marched us into the bush. The kidnappers, numbering nine, asked us to call our parents on phone and demanded N5m each. After we made the calls, they took us farther into the bush and out of the four persons, I was the only female among them.
They said they could not do anything because they were not with any weapon to fight the kidnappers, who were with a gun, a knife and other weapons. By this time, some of the kidnappers, who were initially nine, had left, leaving four of them with us. As we marched deeper into the bush, two of the four kidnappers were trailing behind, while two others with the gun and knife were leading us in front.
At this time, I told my co-traveller victims that we should do something and that I will not follow the kidnappers any farther into the bush to wherever they were taking us to and that God would be in control. I also told them what to do as I suggested to them that I would be the first person to grab the kidnapper carrying the gun while they should come to my assistance if anything happened and that was what I did.
So, when I grabbed the kidnapper with the gun, the other kidnapper holding a knife rushed forward and wanted to stab me in the stomach. But as I turned, he missed his target.
