A 25-year-old young man identified as Mohammed Hamza has been arrested in Abuja by men of the Nigeria Police Force for allegedly supplying bandits and kidnappers with information.
The suspect, also known as Auta, was nabbed by the anti-kidnapping unit of the Police Command at Mongoro Forest.
In a statement made available to newsmen, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police command spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh, said Auta has been on the command’s wanted list.
According to her, the suspect has been helping kidnappers and bandit groups terrorizing the FCT and its environs with information.
Auta is also accused of supplying firearms, ammunition and other weapons; food items and illicit drugs to the criminals in their various hideouts in the forests using a motorcycle.
She said exhibits recovered from the suspect include one AK47 rifle, AK47 ammunition, one mobile phone, foodstuffs and an unregistered boxer Motorcycle. Investigations are being intensified to identify and cut off the criminal supply chain and arrest other members of the gang.
In another operation, the command also arrested four criminal suspects for various crimes, including illegal possession of firearms, illegal fabrication and production of small arms and light weapons, and armed robbery, amongst other crimes.
The suspects, Daniel Williams, 51; Mohammed Yusuf, 41; Abdulrasheed Abdullahi, 26 and Aminu Mohammed, 41 years were intercepted and arrested in the Zuba area of the FCT by operatives of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB).
Four locally made firearms and one live cartridge were recovered from the suspects.
Preliminary investigations by the Police revealed that the gang was involved in fabricating and producing small and light weapons locally.
Adeh disclosed further that the operatives of Utako Divisional Police headquarters on June 07, 2023, at about 7 pm, following a tip-off actionable intelligence, arrested eight suspected armed robbers at one Amala Garden in Utako.
Following the arrest, three firearms of different calibre, knives and hard drugs were recovered from them.
The suspects are: Sani Ibrahim, 41 years old from Gere LGA of Borno State; Yusuf Ilyasu AKA Tablet, an ex-convict, 25 old from Plateau State; Awala Lawal an escapee from Kuje prison, 22 yrs old of Kano state; Hassan Daudo, 34, from Borno State; Abbass Gidado, 18, from Katsina State; Shamsu Haibu, 35, from Kano; Sani Suleiman, 37 from Kano State and one Shehu Jimoh, an ex-convict from Kogi State.
