Benue State Police say they have arrested 20 suspects for kidnapping and possession of illegal firearms in Benue and Gombe states.
Eighteen of the suspects were arrested along Utonkon Road in the Ado Local Government Area in Benue State.
The state’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Catherine Anene made the announcement in a statement Tuesday.
He said the feat was accomplished in collaboration with members of the community.
But villagers in the area said the new Community Volunteers Guard managed to arrest the suspects and turned them over to the police.
Villagers said the suspects were arrested by guards around 7p.m. Sunday.
Anene listed the items they recovered, including an AK-47 rifle and two magazines loaded with 30 rounds of live 6.72mm ammunition.
Also, the Gombe State Police Command said yesterday it had arrested two suspects: Sani Shehu, 25, and Mohammed Sani Adamu, 23, for kidnapping and possession of illegal firearms.
The PPRO, ASP Mahid Mu’azu Abubakar, said in a statement to journalists that the two suspects from Dukku Local Government Area were arrested on the way to their secret meeting place in Yankari forest in Bauchi state.
He said the suspects were arrested around 3pm on August 19 in Tudun Kwaya village in the state’s Billiri LGA in cooperation with a vigilante group and a hunters’ group based on credible information.
He said the suspects confessed under interrogation to being members of a kidnapping syndicate terrorizing the people of Pindiga, adding that Shehu led the police to where they hid their guns in the Yankari forest.
“However, Sani Shehu, who was trying to flee, was hit by a bullet and taken to Kashere General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead by a doctor while he was being treated.
“The body was deposited at the morgue for autopsy,” Abubakar said.
The PPRO added that an AK 47 rifle, two magazines of 18 rounds of live ammunition, a fabricated Sterling rifle, a locally made revolver pistol and a pair of Army camouflage uniforms were recovered from the forest.
