Operatives of the Crack Squad of Adamawa State Police Command have arrested three suspected armed robbers alleged to have been terrorizing customers around the Jimeta axis of the state capital, Yola.
The three are suspected to have been carrying out their act mostly around Bank Road, a district in Yola where most banks are located, as well as in Mubi, the international commercial hub of the state.
The operatives recovered a vehicle, N26,000 cash, two master keys, four hand phones, and some other items from the suspects. This was contained in a statement passed to newsmen Thursday night by the Adamawa police image maker, DSP Suleiman Nguroje.
According to the statement, the three suspects who are indigenes of Jos, Kaduna and Kano States respectively, were apprehended by the operatives during a confidence building patrol earlier in the day, Thursday, the 11th November.
The police named the suspects as Sirajo Muhammed, 40, and a resident of Yankaji in Jos North LGA, Plateau State, Benjamin John, 48, and a resident of Namso Street in Sabon Tasha, Kaduna South LGA, and Mustapha Abubakar, 45, from Zoo Road, Kumboso LGA, Kano State.
The police said the suspects specialise in trailing bank customers after they make cash withdrawals from their various banks.
It said the suspects had on 21st October, 2021 monitored and trailed one Hajiya Ajuji Umar, after withdrawing the sum of N2.5 million from UBA to a certain house in a Jimeta community called Tsohon Kasuwa and by using a master key, took the said amount from her car a few minutes after she parked it in front of a certain house.
The Police stated that on the 8th of November, 2021 and 9th November, 2021 respectively, the same syndicate trailed Abubakar Umar Wambai and Alhaji Yusuf Muhammed who withdrew N400,000 and N3.9 million from Access and Zenith banks respectively and managed to snatch the said amounts from the owners.
According to Nguroje, investigation which led to their arrest revealed that the suspects had been stealing from people’s cars, especially those coming out of banks in Yola, as well as in cattle markets and other business places in and around Yola North and Yola South LGAs and then Mubi North and Mubi South LGAs, since February this year.
DSP Nguroje stated that the State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Barde, had commended officers and men of the Crack Squad for “reclaiming the public space and making it difficult for criminals to escape arrest.”
