Police arrest Master, another notorious kidnapper, in Kaduna

THE leader of a kidnap gang operating in Kaduna axis of Nigeria, Adamu Mamman, popularly known as Master, has been arrested along with two key members of his gang.

Metro gathered that operatives of the Inspector General’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and the police from the Technical Intelligence Unit swooped on Master and his gang, as well as the major receivers of the loot from the gang’s operations.

A senior police officer who spoke with Metro under the condition of anonymity said: “The suspects arrested included the leader of the gang, Adamu Mamman, a.k.a Master (35), Ali Rabo (a.k.a Blacky), Umar Antijo, (27), Shehu Idris Shagari (27), Awwalu Ahmadu a.k.a Mota (27), all from Kaduna State.

The suspected receivers of stolen cows, phones and laptops, among other items, from the kidnappers, were identified as Babangida Abdullahi (31), Usman Abdulmumin (27) and Ahmad Abdullahi (31).

The police officer, who said that the suspects had been terrorising motorists and passengers along the Abuja-Kaduna highway, added that “they robbed, kidnapped and maimed victims. They made lives uncomfortable for drivers and passengers along the road. Their signature is crime as they also engaged in cattle rustling.

“They confessed that they decided to release their last victim and were on their way to see their family members in their respective villages before IRT operatives arrested them at Maraban Jos, Anguwa Pama, Sabon Gayan and Rijana village all in Kaduna State,” the police chief added

According to the police chief, “all the suspects confessed to many kidnapping of motorists and passengers along the Abuja-Kaduna highway.

The victims included one DSP Munir attached to police air wing, Force Headquarters, Abuja, a retired police Sergeant, driver to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, five  students of  Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University and Nuhu Bamalli University namely Idris Goga, Simon Terna, Kazzah Bulus, Ibrahim Kalin, and Augustine Climax who was later killed and his corpse dumped in the river by the kidnappers.

“The suspects further confessed that because of the massive deployment of security forces in their areas of operation by the IGP, most of their gang members had been relocating from Rijana village to their respective home towns. He stated further that there were two major groups of kidnappers operating within Rijana axis of the Abuja-Kaduna highway.”

In another development, Metro has learnt that the arrested kidnapper, Onwuamadike Chukudimeje, popularly known as  Evans,  last year ‘disappeared’ twice from the police in Lagos before his eventual arrest almost two weeks ago.

Metro gathered that the police had once thought that they had arrested Evans, only for them to later discover that he was not among those who were arrested.

It was gathered that the police in Lagos twice tracked and monitored Evans to Magodo community, where he was arrested last week but he managed to wriggle his way out on the two occasions.

A police source who spoke with Metro under the condition of anonymity said: “before Evans’ eventual arrest two Saturdays ago, we tracked him to the same Magodo but how he managed to disappear surprised many of us.”

The police source however stated that the kidnap suspect might have noticed that the police were trailing him and quickly changed his SIM cards and expensive phones, which made tracking him more difficult.

“On one of the occasions, the decoy team from the RRS even arrested two members of his gang  and the whole command was agog with the news that Evans had been arrested but it was later discovered that he was not the one,” the police source said.