At least one bandit has been killed and eleven suspects arrested in connection with banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling, and rape in Katsina State, Police authorities say.
According to the Katsina State Police Spokesman, SP Gambo Isah, while parading the suspects before the command headquarters in Katsina on Friday, there were five different cases in relation to the recent achievements made by the command in the ongoing onslaught against banditry and other related crimes in the state.
Isah stated that four of the suspects who are members of a notorious gun-running syndicate led by one Ibrahim Abdullahi, “were accosted on their motorbikes on June 21st, 2021 at about 13:20hrs” by a team of Police Mobile Personnel while on routine patrol along Tsatskiya- Ummadau road of Safana LGA.
In the course of the investigation, the team recovered the sum of three
million, four hundred and forty-five thousand Naira (N3,445,000:00K) suspected to be ransom money on transit for an arms deal.
During the course of interrogation, the ring leader, Ibrahim Abdullahi, confessed to being a gunrunner and that they have taken six (6) AK 47 rifles to one notorious bandits’ leader, Tukur Rabiu, alias “NASHARME” hibernating at Rijana Forest, along Kaduna – Abuja road and collected the said amount in return for the arms.
The suspect also confessed to being gunrunning for one Abu Rade, a notorious bandit hibernating at Rugu and Dumburum forests of Katsina and Zamfara States.
He further stated that he is being paid the sum of one hundred thousand naira
(N100,000:00K) as commission for each arm, he supplied adding that he had supplied so many AK 47 rifles to different bandits’ camp in the country.
Similarly, on June 24th, 2021 bandits in their numbers, riding on motorbikes, shooting sporadically with AK 47 rifles, attacked Tinya village, Batsari LGA of Katsina state, and rustled some domestic animals.
A team of policemen in collaboration with the vigilante group chased after the hoodlums, engaged them in a fierce gun duel, killed one of the bandits, and recovered one AK 47 rifle.
The scene was immediately scanned by the gallant officers and successfully recovered twelve (12) cows and eleven (11) Sheep earlier rustled by the bandits.
Other suspects arrested by the command include members of a notorious syndicate of bandits/kidnappers and cattle rustlers.
The command spokesman also said that the police succeeded in arresting one Ibrahim Iliya of Sabon Garin Dan Ali village in Danmusa LGA of Katsina state on June 9th, 2021.
In the course of the investigation, the suspect confessed to being among the syndicate of bandits that attacked the poultry farm of one Alhaji Abubakar at Yantumaki village in Danmusa LGA on April 1st, 2021, and carted away forty-nine (49) cows, forty-one (41) Sheep and thirteen (13) Goats valued over five million naira (N5,000.000.00).
The suspect also confessed to have participated in the crime alongside seventeen (17) others all of whom are now at large.
In the meantime, the command has succeeded in arresting a notorious kidnapper and rapist. The 30-year-old suspect simply identified as Surajo Dauda of Rijiyar Basai village in Danja LGA of Katsina State was suspected to have drugged and
abducted a housewife, Jamila Auwal, aged 18-years. She was taken from Tandama village.
Dauda confessed to having abducted and locked up the victim for five months in a room and raped her on a daily basis.
In a similar vein, one Abdullahi Isiyaku (‘M’, aged 30yrs) of Wardanga village in Bakori LGA of Katsina state reported at Danja Division on June 17th 2021, that sometimes in January 2020, he travelled to Lagos to earn a living and left his wife behind, one Zainab Ahmed, (“F”, aged 20 yrs), under the care of her parents at Unguwar Dantalle village of Tandama area in Danja LGA of Katsina state.
However, when he returned earlier in June, he met his wife with a four
months old baby girl. In the course of an investigation, the lady stated that she was indoctrinated into a new Islamic Sect called “Hakika” by three suspected rapists who jointly had carnal knowledge of her.
The suspects – Tukur Dan-Azumi, (m, aged 19yrs), Abubakar Yahuza, (m, aged 20yrs), Rufa’i Saosi, (‘m’, 27yrs) all of Unguwar Dantalle in Tandama
village area Danja.
