Police nab kidnappers, recover N7m ransom

The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has a 5 man gang of kidnappers who abducted a lady in Maitama, Abuja, and held her hostage at their hideout in Sokoto State.

The suspects were paraded by the FCT Commissioner of Police, Mohammad Mustafa, on Wednesday in Abuja.

The suspects who were identified as Ifeanyi Paul, 34; Chukwuemeka Michael, 28; Matthew Obi, 29; Husseini Abdullahi, 35; and Musa Lawan, 27 had allegedly collected a ransom of N7m before their arrest at a police checkpoint in Talata-Mafara, Zamfara State.

Mustapha disclosed that eagle-eyed operatives of the FCT and Zamfara State police commands had mounted a manhunt for the kidnappers.

“On July 27, 2016, the gang waylaid and kidnapped a lady from Maitama in Abuja and took her to a guest inn in Sokoto where she was held hostage and locked up in a toilet.

“The culprits then contacted the victim’s family and demanded N15m as ransom, which was later reduced to N7m after much negotiation with her family. While this was going on, a team of eagle-eyed police detectives kept vigil as the suspects made frantic efforts to pick up the ransom at a location in Zamfara State. Suffice to say that the ransom was, in this case, a bait by the police to lure the suspects out of their hideout.”