The Nigeria Police Force has arrested eighty-four criminal suspects in special operations in the country within the past one month. 

The suspects were arrested for their involvement in series of violent crimes including terrorism, banditry, kidnap for ransom, possession, and proliferation of illegal weapons, armed robbery, unlawful production of vehicle number plates, etc. 

The Police recovered a total of forty-five sophisticated firearms and ammunition including 1-GPMG, 1-LAR rifle, 17-AK47 rifles, 2-Pump Action rifles, 20- locally fabricated firearms, 3-single barrel guns, 9899- live ammunition of different calibers, 80-fake vehicle number plates, 1- Toyota Camry with Reg. No. AA 792 HJA and 1-Toyota Corolla LE with Reg. No. QAP 622 AA.

Among the arrested 84 suspects is four members of a notorious syndicate responsible for carrying out some of the high-profile kidnaps for ransom operations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kaduna, Niger, Katsina, Bauchi, and Plateau States.

The suspects are identified as Umar Abdullahi ‘m’ 40yrs of kali Kura village, Giwa LGA, Kaduna State, Yusuf Tanimu ‘m’ 23yrs of Kurena, Zaria, Kaduna State, Mamuda Suleiman ‘m’ 40yrs of Barkin ladi, Plateau State and Abubakar Yaro ‘m’ 38yrs from Wase village, Plateau State. 

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The syndicate were arrested in connection with a kidnap for ransom crimes including the kidnapping of some senior staff of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, family members of notable political appointees and business entrepreneurs in Kaduna State, and other contiguous State. 

The suspects were at an advanced stage of actualizing their plans of kidnapping a Catholic Bishop in Zaria when they were nabbed. 

Investigations further revealed that the gang, in addition to their kidnapping enterprise, also supplies arms and ammunition to Bandits at Birnin Gwarri, Kaduna State, Niger, Katsina and Zamfara States.  One (1) General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), two (2) AK47 rifles, six thousand, five hundred and nine (6,509) live ammunition were recovered from the syndicate during the operation.

In a related development, the Police team arrested a 7-man criminal syndicate that specializes in the manufacturing and supplies of locally fabricated AK-47 rifles and ammunition to bandits in forests along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway and funtua – kankara expressway in Katsina State. 

The suspects are identified as; Dung Michael ‘m’ 26yrs, Dung James ‘m’ 29yrs, Bulus Iliya ‘m’ 25yrs, Markus Danladi ‘m’ 25yrs, Danjuma Dachu ‘m’ 25yrs all from Jos South and Samaila Abdullahi ‘m’ 45yrs from Toro in Bauchi State, Maek Danladi ‘m’ 30yrs from Chukum, Kaduna State. 

Also, a certain transnational gunrunner identified as Abubakar Mohammed popularly called Mallam Buzu who hails from Mali was arrested by the Police team in Tsamiya, a border town between Benin Republic and Nigeria. He was arrested with a GPMG ammunition chain drive with a holding capacity of 1,600 rounds of ammunition.

In the same vein, five suspects responsible for the production of fake vehicle number plates including replicas of number plates of government, diplomatic, and security agencies were arrested.

 The suspects supply the number plates to criminal elements who use the same to beat security checks during their operations. A total of eighty (80) fake number plates were recovered from the gang.  

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