JUST IN: Kwara Police laud vigilante groups for nabbing notorious kidnappers, others

The Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Paul Odama, has announced a massive haul of different criminals in the state, including kidnappers, ritualists and internet fraudsters.

Announcing the arrests at the state police command headquarters on Thursday, the CP commended some vigilante groups for the roles they played alongside security operatives in making the arrests which were described as a breakthrough.

While parading the 23 crime suspects, the CP acknowledged the cooperation of the Fulani group and the local vigilantes who assisted the command in curbing the menace of kidnappers in various parts of the state.

He said, “I want to commend the Fulani herdsmen who also formed a vigilante group which made it possible for us to arrest some of the kidnappers and of course other local vigilante groups who were in company of police men to comb forests in the state where we arrested some of the notorious kidnappers, including one Abubakar Shehu, aka Dogo, and nine others for alleged kidnapping in the state.”

The PUNCH reports that Dogo is the leader of the gang which allegedly abducted a magistrate court judge and wife of Col.Theophilus Bamigboye (rtd), former Military Administrator of Bauchi and Osun States, Mrs Jumoke Bamigboye.

The judge was abducted in January this year around Eiyekorin area in the outskirt of Ilorin but regained her freedom after payment of an unspecified amount as ransom.

Others paraded with Dogo are Mohammed Aliyu (30), Yunusa Ahmadu (28), Malami Usman (27) and Dauda Amosa (28).

During the parade of the suspects, Odama said that investigation into the case revealed that Abubakar Shehu, aka Dogo, and his gang were behind the kidnap of one Alhaji Madaki Shaibu at Ayegun Fulani Camp sometime in January, 2023, where the son of the Alhaji was killed.

“It was also revealed that Dogo was part of the gang that kidnapped Magistrate Bamigboye also in January, 2023.”

Odama added that the suspects were also into cow rustling and luckily, the vehicle used in the cow stealing was recovered also.

He said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded.

Other suspects paraded are Aliyu Abubakar (30), Aliyu Bingi (30), Shehu Sanni (35), Abdulahi Saidu (28) and Bayo Dudu (30).

Speaking on how they were caught, the CP said “A team of policemen attached to Banni Division in conjunction with local vigilantes acting on intelligence stormed Banni forest in search of suspected kidnappers. The search operation led to the arrest of three suspects who confessed during interrogation to be kidnappers, two of their members by name Bayo Dudu and Aliyu Abubakar who stay in Niger state.

“Their operational weapon, an AK-47 riffle, is in possession of one of the suspects now at large,” he remarked.

The CP equally paraded Habeeb Ayomide, Oni Obasanjo, Mohammed Abdulkareem, Ibrahim Apete, Ajao Musa, Ismail Ayomide, Adebayo Abdulateef and Yusuf Najeem for alleged ritual activities.

Items recovered from them are local pot with concoction, nature sponges, coronation satires and smart phone.

He said that the “Above mentioned suspects were arrested based on actionable intelligence to the effect that, some suspected ritualists are seen gathered at an isolated hotel in Malete Moro Local Government Area of Kwara state.

“The anti-cultsm operatives rounded up the suspects with all the items recovered from them.

“They all confessed to be internet fraudsters but the Command is investigating them for ritual activities. They would be charged to court at the conclusion of investigation”, the Commissioner said.