Zamfara: Police Raid Bandits’ Hideouts, Arrest Nine, Recover Ammunition
The Zamfara State Police Command has arrested 9 criminal suspects, following intelligence led operations conducted in some criminal hideouts in the State.
This was disclosed Wednesday by the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, SP Mohammed Shehu, while parading the suspects, who were arrested by the Police Tactical Operatives attached to the Command.
TheFact Daily gathers that on Thursday, 6 October, operatives of the Command, acting on credible intelligence arrested one Hauwau Usman, aged 43 and Aliyu Mamuda, aged 43, who were alledged to be collaborators with notorious bandits from Munhaye forest in Tsafe LGA of Zamfara State.
Upon interrogation, Hauwau confessed that her two younger brothers, Ali and Hamza, were members of a bandit group based in Munhaye forest, who terrorized communities of Tsafe and neighbouring Katsina State.
While revealing that she was an informant to the brothers, she indicted the other suspect, Aliyu Mamuda, of being the supplier of drugs, food stuff and operational motorcycles for banditry, as well as hiring labourers for the bandits to go and farm their farmlands in the bush.
On 7th October, 2022, operatives attached to CP’s Monitoring Unit State Headquarters, also acting on actionable intelligence, arrested one Mubarak Yusuf, aged 27, who, along with one Ibrahim Rabi’u, aged 35, also arrested, and one Aliyu Buzu (currently at large), called his uncle and and his neighbor and intimidated them to either give them the sum of Five Million Naira (N5,000,000) and Four Million Naira (N4,000,000) respectively, or risk being kidnapped.
The second suspect, Ibrahim Rabi’u, also confessed to the crime and further stated that, apart from engaging in the crime, he also specialized in fraudulent act where he calls innocent people claiming to be a spirit that makes people rich. He said he had previously collected money from people on three different occasions in the name of making them rich.
Furthermore, on 10 October, security operatives attached to Anti Violence Section, Zamfara State Command, while on patrol along Gusau – Wanke, road, arrested two suspects identified as Musa Umar and Idris Yaro, as they were conveying nine rustled cows in a truck. In the course of interrogation, the suspects could not give satisfactory account of the cows, neither could they present documents that prove their ownership of the cows.
The Police spokesperson also disclosed that Police Tactical Operatives of the Command while on rigorous patrol in some troubled locations in Tsafe, Bukkuyum and Shinkafi LGAs, received series of distress calls from communities on plan by bandits to attack their villages.
In response to the distress calls, the operatives succeeded in repelling most of the planed attacks where serious exchange of fire between the bandits and the police operatives ensued, forcing the bandits to flee with possible gunshot wounds sustained.
A search of the scene led to the recovery of 1 AK-49 rifle, 2 AK-47 rifles, 1 KAR rifle, 1 cutlass and a bunch of charms.
In the same vein, detectives of the Command Police, while on patrol along Gusau – Wanke road intercepted one Abdullahi Sani, in possession of 250 rounds of AK-47 live ammunition.
The suspect confessed to have been sent by a notorious bandit called Ladan with the sum of One Million One hundred and ninety Thousand Naira (N1,190,000) to be delivered to an arms supplier who then hand over the consignment to him for onward delivery to the bandit leader.
Similarly, on 9th October, 2022, detectives of the Command, in collaboration with vigilante, acted on intelligence to the effect that a truck, driven by one Salisu Adamu, was loaded with hard drugs such as Penta and Chloroquine Injections, Tramadol and Exzol tablets, cartons of beer, food stuff and two sacks of wrappers.
It was gathered that the above mentioned exhibits were on transit from Kano to Dangulbi area to be supplied to the bandits operating in the bush. The driver was arrested with the exhibits and is now undergoing discreet investigation with a view to arresting his partners in crime.
Meanwhile, the Police Chief in the State, CP Kolo Yusuf, has reiterated the determination of the officers and men of the Command to keep on doing their possible best in line with its continuous onslaught against activities of criminal elements in the State, as well as in keeping with the mission and vision of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, to end the lingering insecurity that had bedeviled Zamfara State for over a decade.
