Nigeria Police Force on Monday paraded 39 suspects including a 78-year-old man for various criminal offences ranging from armed robbery, illegal sale of firearms, kidnapping for ransom and hacking of bank accounts of citizens.
While parading the suspects before newsmen in Abuja, the Force Public Relations Officer FPRO, CP Frank Mba, said that the suspects were arrested by combined efforts of the Special Tactical Squad (STS) and the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Police Force.
Mba explained that investigators of the IGP’s Intelligence Bureau had established a prima facie case against the suspects.
He stated that the 78 years old man, Joseph Okala from Agatu in Benue State was arrested with two Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) which he was to have been supplying to end-users in the various parts of the country before he was arrested.
According to him, one of the suspects Ntui Lambert, 36, a conflict items merchant from Ikom Cross-River State was arrested by the Police team with 58 wraps of explosives suspected to be dynamites.
He said that the suspect was nabbed while trying to supply the explosives to secessionists in Cameroun due to his link with Cameroun as he has a Camerounian mother and Nigerian father.
Some other incriminating items said to have been recovered from the suspect include 216 rounds of live ammunition.
Mba said: “We will work on a collaboration with our counterparts in Cameroon in order to get to the root the matter and put a stop to the illicit act.”
Mba also paraded one Yahaya Zakari 46 nicknamed “His Excellency” who was arrested in Abuja for controlling multiple gangs of cybercrime crooks.
The middle-aged man and his gang of 11 members were said to have specialised in hacking the phone numbers of their victims and making huge withdrawals from their bank accounts.
They were said to be skilful in the use of new mobile phone lines to hack into the account of old phone users who had abandoned their phone lines due to foreign travels and other engagements.
The suspect upon interrogation by the Police team confessed to have been hacking the bank accounts of citizens in and had made N800,000 in one of such ventures.
Mba further added that the suspect was nabbed with 156 new SIM cards by the police operatives.
Other suspects were said to have been arrested for other crimes including the sale of fake dollars totalling $20,000, armed robbery, illegal sale of arms and ammunitions and sale of prohibited goods.
According to the FPRO, “in all, a total of 37 AK 47riffles, 11 Ak47 magazines, 2 Rocket Propelled Grenades RPGs, 18 used MTN SIM cards, 158 new MTN SIM cards and 216 live ammunition are some of the exhibits recovered from the suspects after they were arrested.
He enjoined the public to always ensure that they take proper care of their phones and banknotes to avoid the hacking of their bank accounts and assured that all the suspects would be arraigned in the court of law upon the conclusion of the investigation.
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