FCT Police storm kidnapping hideout in Abuja, arrest pregnant suspect, three others

The Federal Capital Territory, FCT Police Command, has recorded another success in the ongoing fight against banditry with the arrest of at least four suspects.

The FCT Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Muhammed Sanusi, briefed reporters on the development in Abuja on Monday.

Recall that a video clip that captured the CP fronting the war against kidnappers in the Byazhin area of Abuja recently went viral on social media.

In a detailed update on Monday, the CP said a follow-up operation was conducted in the Paze Byazhin area after the anti-kidnapping and rescue operation he led in the area.

He said on June 11, he and other gallant officers stormed the suspected banditry and kidnapping hideout within the same area and arrested the four suspects identified as Yahaya Abdullahi, Muhammed Yunusa, Hauwa Shafiu and Shamsudeen Mustapha.

The CP said that preliminary investigations “revealed that the suspects are part of a criminal network involved in kidnapping and banditry activities within and around the FCT.

“Further investigations revealed that the group had infiltrated and integrated into the local community, enabling them to gather intelligence and coordinate repeated attacks on targeted persons and locations”.

The CP said one of the suspects, Hauwa Shafiu, who operates as a logistics supplier and cook for the criminal gang and their hostages, was heavily pregnant at the time she was arrested.

He, however, said that the suspect subsequently “delivered a healthy baby while in police custody. Adequate medical attention was provided to both mother and child”.

Items recovered from the suspects include four motorcycles, thirty-one pieces of 500mg tablets of tramadol, ten pieces of 50 mg tablets of tramadol, three hundred and twenty thousand-naira cash, five phones, one POS machine and some cooking utensils.