Operatives of the Adamawa State Police Command have apprehended 15 youngsters, members of the dreaded Shila gang, known for terrorizing and dispossessing individuals of their belongings.
According to a statement on Wednesday by the Command Public Relations Officer, SP Suleiman Nguroje, the boys, aged between 13 and 20, were arrested with dangerous weapons and quantities of hard drugs.
Shilla boys are youths of 15 to 25 years old who engage in street larceny and have been terrorising the residents of Yola, the Adamawa State capital for years. The boys who specialise in snatching of items such as phones, computers, handbags, purses, money among others, usually disguise themselves as commercial tricycle operators within the city.
The gang started its dastardly acts during the administration of former Governor, Muhammad Umar Jibrilla Bindow. The crime being committed by the Shilla boys is not only limited to snatching of properties, they also injure and/or kill their victims with the use of cutlasses, machetes, and knives.
Parading the suspects at the Jimeta Division, Yola North LGA, of the State, Nguroje said operatives of the Command, while on patrol with vigilante men along Rumde in the early hours of today, the engaged radical boys who were operating with sharp daggers and knives.
Four sharp daggers, three knives, two handsets, nineteen thousand naira (N19,000), a quantity of hard drugs, amongst others were recovered.
The suspects are: Adamu Abdullahi, Hassan Mohammed, Abdullahi Yusuf, Abdulrazak Abubakar, Ibrahim Umar, Mohammed Zakaria, Mohammed Auwal, Kabiru Abdullahi and Auwal Adamu.
Others are Aminu Adamu, Abdulraham Umar, Amir Mohammed, Anas A. Rufai,
Usman Tijjani and Mohammed Abubakar.
“They will be diligently prosecuted upon completion of investigations”, Nguroje stated.
