The Police Force Headquarters on Wednesday paraded eight members of a robbery gang which attacked commuters along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, during which a former Commissioner for Education in Katsina State, Prof Halimatu Idris, was shot dead.
The suspects are Lawal Tukur, 40, leader of the gang; Sulaiman Sani, 27; Abubakar Ahmad, 30; Abubakar Adamu, 33; Yahaya Musa, 33; Kabiru Bala, 23; Rufai Tukur, 26; and Shehu Audi, 32.
This is just as the police said 35 bandits had been arrested in Zamfara State in connection with the attacks and killings in some villages of the state.
The Force Police Public Relations Officer, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jimoh Moshood, who paraded the suspects in Abuja, said Tukur and Sani confessed to having killed four of the commuters, including the former Katsina commissioner on the day of the attack.
The robbers had struck on Sunday, July 22, along the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway, during which they also robbed a Director of the National Agricultural Research Extensions and Liaison Services, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof Mohammed Othman.
The police said the gang also abducted two women, 51-year-old Rahinatu Shehu, and Aisha Sani, 23, and her seven-month-old baby at their residence in the Mararaba Guga town in the Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Our correspondent learnt that the suspects were nabbed by the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, after a shootout which lasted for several hours.
The Force Spokesman, Moshood, said the police recovered two AK-47 rifles, three pairs of suspected fake military uniforms, cutlasses and motorbike from the suspects.
He said, “All the suspects confessed to the various criminal roles they played in the commission of the crimes. The investigation is in progress and effort is being intensified to arrest other suspects still at large. They will all be arraigned in court on completion of the investigation.
“In Zamfara State, 35 bandits have been arrested in connection with the recent attacks in some villages in Zamfara State. Six AK-47 rifles, 15 locally fabricated guns, 183 AK-47 ammunition and seven live cartridges were recovered from the bandits. All the suspects have made useful statements to the police investigators and confessed to the killings in the affected villages.”
