Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), led by DCP Abba Kyari, have arrested two suspects for allegedly kidnapping a medical doctor Audu Benedict, his son, and one of his associates in Katsina-ala LGA, Benue state, while travelling from Taraba state to Abuja on March 10, 2019.
Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, made the disclosure while parading the suspects, Henry Terkula Gwa, 25, from Donga LGA of Benue state; and Terhile Tsavbe, 30; from Gawa Village, Katsina-ala LGA of Benue state, alongside 25 other suspects arrested for armed robbery, possession of arms, and kidnapping, Monday at the Headquarters of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Abuja.
He said Gwa and Tsavbe were arrested on June 6, and 11, 2020, respectively, following intense search for the victims and manhunt for the perpetrators by the Police team.
According to Mba investigations revealed that the gang collected N7.5 million as ransom from the families of the victims, noting that the suspects had forced the deceased medical doctor to issue a cheque of N500,000 which they cashed at a commercial bank in Gboko, and subsequently collected a N7 million ransom.
Mba decried the fact that the suspects after collecting the ransom killed the three victims and buried them in a shallow grave at Gawa in Katsina-ala LGA, adding that while effort was being intensified to arrest other suspects still at large the police team was on the verge of exhuming the remains of the victims.
The suspects in their separate interviews with journalists confirmed that they collected receipt of the sum of ₦7.5 million as ransom before the victims were killed but claimed the gang leader, Tena, who is at large, was responsible.
The spokesperson also paraded a four-man gang of suspected kidnappers arrested in connection with the kidnap and murder of one Mrs Veronica Agbo aka Jamaica in Benue state, whose family reportedly refused to pay ransom foe her to be released.
He said the gang also kidnapped one Nike Francis Itodo, who hails from the South-west and married to a Benue indigene, Idoma by tribe, even as the suspects confessed to the crimes but blamed one Matthew, also at large, for masterminding the crimes and blackmailing them to participate.
Similarly, an 11-man robbery gang specialised in breaking into residents, offices and hotels by using car jacks to expand burglary proof was also paraded.
Speaking to journalists, the gang leader one Gambo Isah, 30, from
Katsina state, who confessed to having been operating in the past five years, claimed he had lost count of the number of robberies he had masterminded, even as he said he had been taking care of his family and bought motorcycles and plots of land with proceeds from the robberies.
Mba said exhibits recovered from the suspects include: six AK47 rifles, three locally fabricated pump action guns, one locally fabricated pistol, two dane guns, 55 rounds of AK47 ammunition, four empty magazines, one laptop computer and one Toyota Corolla car with Reg No. MKD 13 RC.
The spokesperson warned members of the public to be on the look out for one Matthew Jerome, who he described as a dangerous kidnapper because he was camouflaging as a youth leader and leader of a vigilantes group, even as he cautioned community leaders to pay close attention to people in positions of authority and responsibility by monitoring their activities and constantly checking their backgrounds in case character mutation.
