Police Arrest 3 Over Kidnap/Murder of Catholic Seminarian

Police operatives have arrested a deadly criminal gang responsible for the kidnap and murder of a Catholic Seminarian, Nnadi Michael of the Catholic Good Shepherd Major Seminary at Gonin Gora, Kakau, in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The gang had, on January 9, 2020, stormed the Catholic Seminary and kidnapped four seminarians, murdered one of them in cold blood and released the remaining three on January 31, 2020, after obtaining a ransom. The remains of the fourth Seminarian were found in a bush where it was abandoned.

The three suspects, all males, are: Tukur Usman, 37, a father of seven; Shehu Bello, 40, a father of five; and Mustapha Mohammed, 30, a father of one. They are all indigenes of Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

A release issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, FPRO, Mr. Frank Mba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, said the suspects were arrested “after several months of intensive and extensive intelligence-led operations by crack detectives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT).”

DCP Mba said discreet investigations revealed that the arrested suspects were part of a 19-man gang that kidnapped Dr Phillip Ataga’s wife and two daughters on January 24, 2020, at Juji Community in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

“Mrs Ataga was killed by the gang following her heroic resistance to the despicable and inhuman attempt by the leader of the gang to rape her,” Mba continued in the release. “The suspects, after killing her, released the daughters and the corpse of the slain woman to the family after collecting a ransom.”

Mba stated further that : “Further investigations reveal that the same criminal gang is responsible for the kidnap of six students and two teachers of Engravers College, Chikun LGA, Kaduna, from their school premises on October 3, 2019.

“The suspects, known to belong to a hybrid terrorist criminal network causing untold havoc in North-Central, Nigeria, have confessed to several other random operations along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway where they kidnapped, killed and robbed motorists, collecting ransom and valuables running into millions of naira.”

The FPRO said that the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu, reiterated that the Force will not relent in its resolve to reduce crimes and criminality across the country to the barest minimum.

Adamu also assured the nation that “the Force will not rest until the other members of the gang also responsible for the above crimes, but currently on the run, are apprehended and brought to book.”