Journalist101 can report authoritatively that the kidnappers of the Greenfield University Students haven’t been arrested.
Contrary to the reports currently trending on social media that the kidnappers have been arrested with an accompanying picture, our investigation reveals that the pictures are from an incident which happened on October 22nd, 2019.
The pictures being spread is the arrest of the kidnappers of Sokoto state businessman by the police and the recovery of N10.1m, 8 AK- 47 Rifles.
Below is the true story behind the pictures currently trending online:
“Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force have recovered a total of 10.1 million from suspected kidnappers of one Alhaji Tuku Zubairu, a wealthy businessman from Sokoto State.
“Addressing newsmen Monday, at the Special Anti -Robbery Squad (SARS), Headquarters in Abuja, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Frank Mba, said the “suspects formed their gang while in Katsina Prison where they planned the operation.”
According to Mba, the Police arrested a total of 81 suspects including a 19 -year-old Ghanaian and one woman for various criminal offences across the country where a total of eight AK-47 rifles, 344 rounds of ammunition and about 15 other types of locally fabricated weapons including 10 laptops were recovered from them.
Mba said, “We are here to brief you in line with our commitment to transparency and accountability. Our operatives have arrested members of a very dangerous gang led by one Rufai.
“This gang was formed in Katsina Prison and members are persons who had been prosecuted by the police and some serving jail terms and were almost rounding up their sentences while others are in the prison awaiting trials.
“Somehow, they were able to get themselves together while in prison; they formed a deadly gang and while in the prison they hatched the plot to kidnap one Alhaji Tuku Zubairu, a wealthy businessman in Sokoto State.
“As soon as they were out from the prison, they embarked on that mission kidnapped the businessman and collected ransom running into several millions from him.
“We went after them and as I speak to you today, all the gang members have been arrested and a total sum of N10.1 million part of the ransom they collected has been recovered,” he said.
DCP Mba also added, “A very deadly kidnap gang known as the Sahaibu Dan Kaduna gang was arrested by our operatives. The gang is responsible for so many terrible crimes especially along Kaduna axis and other parts of the North Central zone of the country.”
On August 11, he said, the gang ambushed a team of Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT), Operatives that were on a mission and killed four of them.
“Ever since then, we have not relented on our efforts and as I speak to you majority of members of that gang have been arrested. The rifles of the IRT operatives that were snatched after killing them have all been recovered.
