Police Arrest Serial Kidnapper Recruiting Armed Men In Niger

Forty-year-old Bashiru Abdullahi has been arrested for allegedly recruiting armed men for the kidnap of a former local government chairman and the father of a former commissioner in Niger State.

Police spokesman, Wasiu Abiodun disclosed yesterday that in view of the ongoing onslaught against insurgency, banditry and kidnapping in the state and in a proactive effort of the command, a tactical team attached to the Minna Area Command arrested the suspect following credible intelligence.

“The suspect was arrested in Kontagora when he was planning and making effort to recruit armed men needed to perpetrate his usual kidnapping. During interrogation, Alh. Bashiru confessed that he planned to kidnap a former local government chairman of Mariga and the father of a former commissioner in the state,” he added.

Abiodun said the suspect claimed that the former chairman owed him N5.8 million and that if he was kidnapped, he intended to realise N10 million ransom from him.

He said the suspect further confessed that part of his plan was to equally kidnap the father of the former commissioner whom he owes N1.3 million from a business transaction while he was expecting to get N15 million ransom from the plan.

He explained further that investigation revealed that sometime in March 2022, Bashiru was suspected to have murdered his younger brother, one Alh. Mamuda Abdullahi.

“When he was interrogated, he confessed that he contributed money with his brother to the tune of N79 million for a business purpose, but he suspected that his brother swindled him and he hit him with a stick on the head which resulted to his death,” he said.

The suspect told the family members that his brother was attacked and killed by bandits at Beri.