The Nigeria Police in Adamawa State has paraded 69 people alleged to have been involved in kidnapping, armed robbery, homicide and violence in different parts of the state.
The police said 19 of them have been involved in kidnapping incidents and six others allegedly threatened people with kidnapping and collected money from them.
The suspects paraded on Monday at the police headquarters in Yola also included 25 suspected Shila Boys who were mostly teenage boys and allegedly engaged in street snatching of valuables from residents.
The others paraded were 18 people arrested for allegedly inciting communal clashes in Tigno in Lamurde LGA, as well as one person who was accused of culpable homicide.
The state Commissioner of Police, CP Olubenga Adeyanju, who paraded the suspects, said the suspected kidnappers were rounded up when operatives of the state police command and members of vigilantes and hunters, stormed their hideouts in April.
“Investigation led to the arrest of a syndicate that kidnapped Sule Haro and Solomi Ishaya and killed the husband, Pastor Ishaya, in April 2020 at Mararaba Boki in Gombi LGA”.
He added that the suspected kidnapping gang also kidnapped one Aminu Hassan, Isah Usman and Hamza Adamu of Uba village in Hong LGA and demanded N10 million ransom before they were rescued.
The group further confessed to having kidnapped Dodde Zumo and Ya’u Mohammadu, both residents of Zumo in Maiha LGA and collected N1 million before they were apprehended.
The police commissioner named the six people charged with criminal intimidation and extortion as Musa Bello (20 years), Adamu Ibrahim (28), Lazarus Musa (32), Bashir Ali (30), Yahuza Mohammed (25), and Faruk Usman (28).
He said the six belonged to a syndicate that frequently called and threatened their target to pay millions of naira or risk being kidnapped, but that the command, following complaints of members of the public, arrested them.
Speaking on the 25 Shila Boys who were mostly teenagers, the police commissioner said their arrest followed frequent area patrol of different parts of the state capital, Yola
