Following the flag-off of ‘Operation Puff Adder II’ by the Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu on 15th February, 2021, to reinvigorate the ongoing fight against violent crimes in the country and bring the perpetrators to book, operatives of the FIB Intelligence Response Team and Special Tactical Squad of the Force attached to the Operation Puff Adder II have arrested forty-eight (48) criminal suspects, including one (1) female, for their involvement and indictment in cases of armed robbery, kidnapping, unlawful possession of firearms, cybercrime/financial fraud and other heinous crimes in some parts of the country.
Firearms recovered include Forty-one fourteen (14) AK47 rifles, ten (10) AK47 Magazines, fifty-eight (58) live cartridges, and four (4) AK47 live ammunition. Apart from these, four (4) POS machines, two (2) laptop computers, eighteen (18) mobile phones, an nternet modem and nine (9) ATM cards were also recovered from the suspects in the operations.
Of note among the breakthroughs, is the arrest of the nine (9) criminal suspects responsible for the kidnap of Mohammed Bashir Bape, a member of the Taraba State House of Assembly in December, 2020. The suspects were apprehended at their various hideouts in Taraba and Plateau States following an intense search by the Police team for the perpetrators of the crime and follow-up on recent spike in kidnapping and armed robbery in Taraba and the North-Central States of the country.
TheFact Nigeria reports that investigations by the Police team revealed that the suspects are members of a notorious armed robbery and kidnapping syndicate that specializes in terrorizing innocent citizens in the North-Central and North East states particularly in Plateau and Taraba States.
Police investigations have uncovered the roles played by each member of the gang during Bape’s kidnap, as well as how the proceeds of the crime (ransom) were shared among the suspects.
The Police operatives also arrested a 12-man cybercrime syndicate for internet fraud and other cyber-related offences. The suspects, aged within the range of twenty-two (22) and thirty (30), were arrested at a residence in Kubwa area of the Federal capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, following intelligence received by the Police.
Similarly, the Police team busted a 2-man gang made up of a 61-year-old physically challenged man, Musa Usman from Kebbi State who resides in Anambra State, and one Ahmed Shuaibu, aged 27, and a native of Nasarawa State, for complicity in the distribution and sale of illicit and dangerous drugs to bandits in their camps at Babuga, Nasarawa State. Until his eventual arrest, the physically challenged man had been taking advantage of his physical state to evade police attention. Thirty-five wraps of substance suspected to be cocaine, were recovered from the suspects.
The Inspector General of Police, while noting that the Operation Puff Adder II is already yielding positive results barely ten (10) days after it was flagged-off, has assured that the Force will not relent in its commitment at re-dominating and reclaiming the public space from criminals that are hell bent on threatening the internal security order of the country and bringing such suspects to justice.
