The police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has arrested suspected notorious kidnappers, one Buhari Muhammad, and five other members of the syndicate in Abuja.
According to a statement issued on Monday by the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, the suspects were arrested in a hotel in Bassa village in the nation’s capital.
Adeh said the five other suspects include a wanted kidnapping kingpin, Muhammad Sabiu, Isah Abdullahi, Hamzat Musa, Fatima Abdullahi, and Zuliat Yusuf.
She further said the notorious kidnapping syndicate was responsible for the abduction of Joshua Eze, the husband of Blessing Eze, who suffered a bullet injury in the process of her husband’s abduction.
Recall that Joshua was kidnapped on January 27, 2024, but was rescued unhurt by Police operatives of the command after 24 hours
The PPRO confirmed that the arrest was made by the command’s operatives attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, dedicated to the fight against criminality in the territory.
According to her, one AK-47 rifle, 10 mobile phones, a cash sum of N345,000, and other valuables were recovered from the suspects.
Meanwhile, former presidential aspirant and a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim has urged President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to implement the APC’s policy of decentralization of policing to halt the rising wave on insecurity, blood-letting and kidnapping in the country.
Civil society groups, under the aegis of the Civil Society Joint Action Group, said last week that 2,423 persons had been killed, while 1,872 others had been abducted in the eight months of President Tinubu’s administration.
The group added insecurity had persisted over the last three administrations, with 24,816 Nigerians killed and 15,597 persons abducted in the last administration of President Buhari, between 2019 and 2023.
Decrying the development, Olawepo-Hashim, in a statement, said that the barbaric killings and kidnappings were condemnable.
Lamenting that rampaging gangs of terrorists and kidnappers moving like a guerrilla movement around most states in Nigeria, the business-cum-politician said: “I really do not understand the hesitation on the part of the President and the party leadership to lead the charge. “Many State governments and Local Government Councils are being controlled by APC. The Party also controls the National Assembly and the majority of state houses of Assembly. So, it means the party can obtain the Legislative consensus within one week to bring to birth State Policing.”
For some time now, there has been a clamour for the establishment of the State Police Force as opposed to what was laid down in Section 214 of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution. This is a result of the deteriorating situation of the security system in Nigeria.
Olawepo-Hashim argued that while the immediate creation of local police would not stop all the problems of insecurity in Nigeria, it would solve about 50 per cent of it, noting “We cannot let the bloodletting continue and carry on as if we are confused on what is to be done to stop it.”
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