Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Police Wednesday paraded 47 suspected notorious kidnappers and armed robbers in Abuja. Also paraded were suspected murderers, illegal arms dealers among other criminals terrorizing the country.
Among the suspects paraded is a 30-years- old kidnap kingpin, Mohammed Sani, who confessed to have killed over 50 of his victims for failing to pay ransom for their release.
Sani, who operated mostly in Kaduna, Katsina, Niger and Zamfara States, wearing military uniforms, confessed to be working with Yellow Jambros, who supplied him with guns and other weapons needed to execute his operation.
Parading the suspects,Force Public Relations officer (FPRO), DCP Frank Mba, said Sani, who has been in the kidnapping business for sometime now, was a sector commander of a major kidnap group with over 120 men under his command.
The suspect who said he has lost count of how many kidnap operations he carried out, said he killed only those who could not pay ransom but allowed those who relatives paid ransom to go home.
Mba, said the suspect who had been on the wanted list of the police was arrested by men of the Special Tactical Squad (STS).
“His area of specialty is kidnapping for ransom and banditry. Occasionally he veered into cattle rustling. He belonged to an organized kidnapping gang that has gone ahead to sectorize their operations.
Sani is a sector commander within the larger kidnapping and banditry enterprise.
He has over 100 men directly under his command. Sani was reporting to another notorious kidnapper who is on our wanted list known in the underworld as Yellow Jambros.”
Also paraded were seven suspects linked to the attack on a bullion van in Abakiliki, Ebonyi State on July 29.
Mba said two of the suspects were dismissed soldiers. He said, they carried out the attack after a through surveillance on the movement of the bullion van for over two weeks.
Mba, who said four policemen were killed and their rifles taken away during the attack, however, pointed out that the reinforcement and courage shown by both the driver of the bullion van and other operatives, prevented the robbers from stealing the money.
He said the robbers were arrested by operatives of the IGP Intelligence Response Team (IRT) following painstaking investigation that crisscrossed several states of the federation.
He gave the name of the gang leader as Sunday Seyemi from Bayelsa State and listed weapons recovered from them as: one GPMG rifle with 136 rounds of GPMG ammunition, six AK47 rifles, 61 AK47 magazines, five K2 magazines, 1, 620 rounds of live AK47 ammunition, two sets of Army camouflage, assorted charms and other house breaking implements. He said two suspects were still at large.
Also paraded was Paul Okorie, 52, for illegally producing and selling military uniforms.
He was found to be in possession of 583 pieces of military uniforms alongside two of his accomplices at the time of his arrest.
Mba said acting on very credible intelligence, operatives from the STS stormed some of the warehouses and business premises where the uniforms were being produced.
Weapons recovered from him were 321 rounds of AK47 ammunition, nine pistols, 10 AK47 rifles, 864 rounds of live cartridges, 583 pieces of military camouflages, one GPMG rifle and N258, 570 cash.