The Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Report Team (IRT) is an elite arm of the Nigeria Police Force. The Unit has achieved amazing feats, cracking down on high-profile kidnap cases and kidnappers, among others. The Head of the Unit is a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Mr Tunji Disu and he led the operations, investigations, and arrests.
julianafrancisnews.com looks at the 10 top investigations and arrests.
The cases were not categorised or picked in any order of importance.
- Killers of Police Chief, lawmaker arrested
The 10th on our list has to do with the arrest of four suspects, suffering from an unfathomable sense of entitlement and appearing to be bedevilled by a godlike mist.
They killed a lawmaker because they felt entitled to his money and killed a retired police chief because he was trailing their gang’s activities. The police chief was given the pest and pesticide treatment.
The four suspects, Hamishu Galadima 48 alias Kan Wuka, Abdulwahab Alhassan alias Emeka, Abdulwahab Ahmed alias Dan mama and Hamidu Saleh.
They were arrested by the IRT after they connived and killed the retired Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Bauchi for trailing them. They also killed a serving lawmaker, Honourable Musa Mante of the Bauchi State House of Assembly for being stingy.
During interrogation, the suspects admitted to killing the Police officer for making life tough and miserable for them by constantly searching for them.
They also admitted to killing the lawmaker and kidnapping his wives and children for failing to assist them with funds after making several requests.
They were all arrested and will be charged with criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, and kidnappings.
- Expert in generating fake bank credit held
The ninth top case involves the arrest of 37 years old Olaogun Babatunde for the crime of extortion and use of a fake bank alert to dupe a lady of N5 million and other citizens.
He has brains and could have succeeded in any business he chooses to embrace, but he preferred to use his brains, looks and cool dressing style to prey on women and financial institutions.
Nobody is sure for how long Babatunde had been committing these sorts of crimes and getting away with it, but the IRT had finally stopped him.
The suspect graduated from the University of Lagos in 2008 and is popularly called by friends an Evil Genius because of his expertise in generating fake bank credit alerts.
He has confessed to meeting Chidinma Vivian Okwenna via a social network platform where they interacted and exchanged contacts before he used her contacts to swindle her of N5 million with a fake bank alert.
On the 9th of December 2021, he approached Chidinma Vivian Okwenna at Wuse Zone 2 First Bank of Nigeria branch for N5 million new notes saying that his boss needed it.
Chima Vivian raised the sum of N3.5m and handed it over to him and he subsequently generated a fake bank credit alert of its equivalent through Zenith Bank account and send the money to her and immediately took an excuse and rushed out of the bank claiming to have a meeting with someone.
To perfect his criminal act, immediately after he stepped out of the bank, he blocked the complainant from reaching him both on social platforms and mobile networks.
After obtaining his account statement he was just having just a paltry N24, 000 as balance in that Zenith Bank account on that day of the transaction
He had collected items from the victims of his criminal acts including laptops, phones, and other gadgets. He was arrested following tracking.
- Black Axe confraternity members, initiating fresh students arrested
On the eighth floor of our top 10 cases is the arrest of 11 students for suspected cultims at Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma Edo State.
These young folks were all final-year students, and the appalling and annoying aspect of their escapades was in allegedly forcing fresh undergraduates to join cultism.
If nothing was done to stop these cultists, our institutions would have continued to be venues for bloodbaths instead of a place for learning.
The suspects were charged with crimes of conspiracy, unlawful possession of firearms cultism and ritual killing. They were arrested by IRT operatives.
The group leaders killed two other members of the cult group after unresolved leadership issues in their final year in school.
They belong to the Black Axe confraternity and were also accused of forceful initiation of fresh students into the group by administering fetish oath on its members before initiation. Police recovered three pump action rifles, two AK 47 assault rifles, four machetes and 22 rounds of live ammunition.
- Bandits, kidnappers’ informants arrested
The seventh top case is the arrest of three kidnaps for ransom suspects in Kaduna State for offences of criminal conspiracy, abductions and possession of illegal arms and ammunitions.
This group’s penchant is to give information to kidnappers and after ransom is paid, the members are given a piece of the action.
Nobody knows how many bandit gangs or kidnap gang these suspects used to give information to on likely personalities to kidnap, but for now, for today, this particular group has been stopped.
Abubakar Inusa 32 male, Hassan Abdullahi and Rabiu Sali 40, were arrested through the intelligence of the officers and men of the Police team.
One of the suspects is the key actor and mastermind of the act of kidnapping. Abubakar Inusa said that he was the one that took bandits to the Seriki’s house. The Seriki is Alhaji Abubakar.
The suspect also revealed that they took the victims to one Alhaji Kamilu’s house and kidnapped his wife even as he also pointed at another Alhaji Sanni’s house who luckily was not at home when the hoodlums invaded the community.
The suspect further revealed that one of the Police officers from the IRT team was mistakenly kidnapped by the gang, as well as the older brother of one of the victims.
The suspect upon further interrogation by the Police team revealed that seven of the bandits swooped into the victim’s compound through information provided by himself to the bandits.
He added that since the time of the incident, Dogo the gang leader had disappeared and refused to come out of the forest. The gang members in one of the encounters with security agents vandalised a Police vehicle.
- Killers of governorship aspirants in police net
The sixth top case for us here is the arrest of a gang of criminals who killed a governorship aspirant, Mallam Sagir Hamidu in Zamfara State along the Kaduna-Kano Highway in December 2021.
This gang are part of those that had been terrorising the Abuja-Kaduna route. Hundreds, if not thousands of Nigerians have been kidnapped and killed along that route.
Some victims were released after payment of ransom, others were never seen. Similarly, hundreds of security personnel have been killed on that route. There seems to be no solution on how to check kidnapping and killings along that route.
One of the suspects revealed that over 50 separate groups of kidnappers were working that route.
The governorship hopeful who was also the proprietor of Famaks British Schools Abuja was killed on his way to Zamfara State, his home state from Abuja by a gang of three after he was kidnapped on the highway by the criminals.
The suspects include Mustapha Muhammed 28, Sani Usman 22, and Muhammed Tijani 23.
Upon interrogation by the Police team, the key suspect Mustapha Muhammed told the Police team that they have been involved in the business of kidnapping on highways and homes in Kakkau and Gwagwa in Kaduna State.
The gang had previously kidnapped a woman on the Kaduna- Abuja Express Road. The victim would later leave her infant on the road before her abductors took her into captivity.
According to the gang, on the day the governorship aspirant was killed on the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway, 50 other groups’ members came out from the bush for the operation.
He added that it was one of the gang members known as Easy that shot and killed the governorship hopeful who was travelling to his home state after the close of work in his school in Abuja on a fateful day.
- Arrests of abductors of Catholic Priest in Kaduna
The fifth case on our top 10 list is the arrest of two suspects in connection with the abduction of a Catholic Priest in Kagarko LGA of Kaduna State.
Since insecurity in Nigeria dovetailed to pure anarchy, with the Nigerian government bereft of ideas to tackle the situation, men of the clothes have become primary targets for kidnappers, bandits, and terrorists.
The biblical saying, “touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm,” has simply taken flight.
Criminals no longer care about the injunctions in the holy books and those that cared, interpret them to suit their criminal activities.
These two suspects, who dared to kidnap a Catholic Priest are currently paying for their sins.
The suspects, Abubakar Usman, 21 and Salisu Abdullahi 28, were arrested by the Police team following intense intelligence-led operations to unravel, arrest and bring to book, the criminal gang responsible for a series of related high-profile kidnap operations in Kaduna State. One GPMG and three AK47 rifles were recovered from the suspects.
- IRT smashes gang that uses women as sex toys
The fourth top case on our list is the arrest of three suspects identified as Muslin Abubakar, Lawisa Hassan, Hajara Abubakar and Maryam Abubakar for conspiracy and kidnapping for ransom.
This gang is fixated on the kidnapping of women, either married or single. After kidnapping these women, the gang takes them to kidnappers to be raped.
It is shocking to discover a woman is among the gang members helping to dehumanise her fellow women.
It is believed that several women and families have fallen prey to the gang, but many preferred not to make official complaints due to the stigmatisation that comes with being raped.
The Police operatives in the team of FIB-IRT Rigachikun based on operation Puff-Adder II on October 17, 2021, succeeded in arresting all the suspects of Hanwa Zaria who specialised in taking women to kidnappers at their camp located at Galadimawa in Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Investigation revealed that one of the suspects, Muslin Abubakar, conspired with Lawisa Hassan, hood-winked Khadija Idris and Khadija Musa all female residents of Hanwa Zaria and took them to kidnappers.
The women were then raped and later the gang asked for ransom from their relations. The role of a female member of the gang, Maryam Abubakar, was to take married women to them and get paid. While being interrogated, Maryam said Hajara Abubakar was among the married women taken to the camp for adultery.
- Gang that kidnapped Customs officer, killed sergeant busted
The cracked down on gangs that target the elites in Nigeria made our third top 10 list.
The gang has been playing hard and appears not to be resting. The members have been as busy as a bee.
They have kidnapped a Customs Official, kidnapped a family member of the Emir of Jalingo, killed a police sergeant and were preparing to do more before they were corralled. You will not believe the sophisticated killing weapons recovered from them.
The IRT Unit working with the Taraba State Police Command arrested a total of 11 notorious kidnapping suspects in Taraba State for their complicity and various criminal roles in the recent trend of kidnapping incidents in Taraba State including the kidnapping of serving personnel of the Nigeria Customs Service, kidnapping of a relative of the Emir of Jalingo and the killing of a Police Sergeant in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital.
The Police team equally recovered seven AK47 rifles, two Beretta pistols, 121 rounds of live ammunition of different calibre, four magazines, masks, illicit drugs and other incriminating items during raids of various hideouts of the suspects in the State.
Police investigations revealed that the suspects, who have also been on the Wanted List of the Taraba Police Command, are members of a notorious kidnap syndicate and have been evidentially linked to the recent upsurge in incidents of kidnapping in the State, including the deliberate and calculated attacks on security personnel. Investigations also revealed how two of the suspects, Gambo Isah and Sanusi Ahmadu masterminded the killing of the Police Sergeant and left a Police Inspector with gunshot injuries in their recent operation to enable them to escape arrest having abducted some victims in Jalingo recently.
- Arm dealing gang smashed, 57 AK-47 rifles recovered
The second on our list is the arrest of arms dealers, who due to their businesses continue to make the country a graveyard.
How these guns pass through the borders with Customs Officials at entry points, continues to be a nagging question.
These dealers were arrested during a sting operation arrested four notorious arms dealers and recovered 57 AK47 rifles and a large catchment of ammunition in Jos, Plateau State and from other locations across the country.
The suspects, Hamza Zakari, 20, (aka Hamzo) , Abubakar Muhammed, 22, (aka Fancy), Umar Ibrahim , 25, and Muhammed Abdulkarim, 37 (aka Dan-Asabe). They are all males and residents of Jos. They were arrested following credible intelligence on their nefarious activities in Jos and its environs.
The suspects, who confessed to their involvement in arms dealings and other criminal acts, have been identified as one of the major links for the supply of arms and ammunition to criminal elements terrorising the state and some other parts of the country. The investigation team is on the trail of their accomplices, and they are closing in on them.
The other three gunrunners, Bello Sani, Venab Puncat and Yusuf Nahoda, were arrested in all Ibi Local Government areas of Taraba. The three during interrogation confessed to having purchased one AK47 rifle, and one SMG rifle at the cost of N900,000.
- Suspect held after kidnapping lawmaker family, picking N36m ransom
The number one case on our top 10 list is the arrest of a suspected gang of kidnappers, who feasted on the despair of a serving lawmaker, milking him dry.
The gang kidnapped his wife and children and collected whooping sums of ransom for them.
When this story broke, as with most stories surrounding lawmakers, some Nigerians rejoiced, saying that it was finally time for lawmakers to begin to feel the heat and pains other Nigerians suffer in a country taken over by kidnappers, terrorists, and bandits.
However, the fact remains; kidnapping under whatever guise is a felony.
Three suspects who orchestrated the kidnap of the wife and children of the serving lawmaker, Honourable Dr Ibrahim Aminu in Katsina State were arrested.
The suspects are Muttaka Ibrahim, Suleiman Rabiu, and Suraj, all male and natives of Bakori Local Government Area for allegedly supplying the information that led to the lawmaker’s family being kidnapped.
The lawmaker, while narrating his ordeal to the Police said: “I paid a total sum of N37,500,000 to the gang leader to secure the release of my family from their captivity.”
It was gathered during the investigation, that Muttaka Ibrahim confessed to the crime, saying that he and other gang members were informants to Sanni Tukur aka Abacha, who had been terrorising villages and towns in Katsina and Zamfara states.
“They were said to have volunteered information to the bandit leader, leading to the kidnapping of Honourable Dr Ibrahim Aminu’s wife and six other natives. Other victims of the syndicate’s criminal gang include Buhari Usman, also known as Federico, Nazaradeen Ibrahim, Amandallah Ahmad, Ibrahim Suleiman, Sumayya Nura, and Yahaya Bura who are currently in the captivity of the gang,” stated the police.
The kidnappers after abducting the wife of the lawmaker, Rabi Yusuf, and two of his male children, had demanded and received N11 Million and N10 Million for his children at separate times.
