*criminals’ operations covers Kaduna, Niger, FCT
By; BALA B. BITRUS, Minna
A well coordinated sting operations by men of the Niger State Police Command have led to the arrest of a gang of multiple crime maestro and his cohorts including the gang’s arms supplier based in Kaduna.
The gang include kingpins of kidnap, armed robbery, herds rustlers and hoodlums who have been terrorizing innocent people and dispossessing them of their valuables.
The Command’s Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), DSP Bala Elkanah said the onslaughts against the dangerous men of the underworld was a huge success.
He said operatives of the command had followed a lead to burst open a den of cattle thieves in a densely forested bush at Nkuchi village of Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State in an operation which lasted for hours where two of the dangerously armed bandits were demobilised while one of them, Haruna Garba was captured alive.
Also in another sting operation, men of the command’s anti robbery squad in collaboration with the Inspector General of Police’s Special Tactical Squad had rounded up a four man gang of armed robbers in their hideouts base shortly after one of their operations.
The four member gang includes Bello Idris, Bungel Saleh, Idris Abdulkadir and Idris Saleh, all of Fulani descent and from Injita village of Munya Local Government Area of the state.
One notorious gunrunner, Nelson Paul of Kujama town of Kaduna State was also arrested in the process of selling an assault rifle, (AK47) to the suspects (Idris Bello, Abdulkadir Bello and Idris Saleh.)
During the sting operation by the Police at the criminals’ den, one locally made SMG gun with six rounds of live ammunition, two locally made revolvers short guns with four live cartridges, three locally made single barrel guns and one dane gun were recovered from their hideout.
The Police said it’s investigations into the serial operations of the gang had revealed that Bungel Saleh is the leader of the gang which is also into kidnapping for ransom, herds rustling and arms trafficking.
The gang’s common places of operation include the territorial spaces in and Niger State, neighbouring Kaduna State and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
DSP Elkanah confirmed that the gang members had during interrogations, confessed to the kidnapping of a four year school pupil from where they collected the 10 million Naira (N10, 000,000) as ransom from the victim’s parents.
The Police said as soon as it’s investigations on the gang were through, they would be prosecuted.