Laila Ahmed, the 15-year-old daughter of a former Director of Public Affairs at the National Broadcasting Commission and former General Manager of the Katsina State Television, has regained her freedom after 29 days in the den of kidnappers.
A source who pleaded anonymity told Channels Television that Laila was released in the early hours of Wednesday (October 5).
Laila and her father, Ahmed Abdulkadir, had both been abducted on September 6, 2021, from their residence located in Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina State.
But Abdulkadir had been released since September 10.
Family sources told Channels Television on Wednesday that the kidnappers had earlier requested a N70 million ransom for the release of the victims.
It is, however, unclear whether the ransom was paid to secure the release.
When contacted, police authorities in the state said they were yet to receive an official report regarding the release of the victim as a result of the recent shutdown of telecommunications services in Bakori Local Government Council.
At least 13 suspects have been arrested by the Police in Katsina State for alleged involvement in banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping and arms smuggling as well as terrorising innocent citizens of the state.
Their arrest formed part of the recent achievements so far recorded by the State Police Command in the ongoing fight against crime and criminality in the state.
The Police Spokesman, SP Gambo Isah, paraded the suspects on Wednesday on behalf of the State Police Commissioner, CP Sanusi Buba, before the Command Headquarters in Katsina.
He said one of the suspects, identified as Surajo Mamman alias “KUTAKU” (50-years-old) Tulun Busawa village is a notorious kidnapper terrorising the state was arrested on September 16, 2021, at about 1300hrs.
In the course of the investigation, the suspect confessed to being under the command of one Sani Muhidinge, a notorious bandit leader hibernating in Rugu forest.
He also confessed to have participated in so many attacks, kidnappings and cattle rustlings across Dan Musa, Safana, Dutsinma and Batsari LGAs villages.
Mamman further confessed that he could not remember the number of persons he killed or kidnapped in his 15 years old business.
The police have arrested nine suspects linked to kidnapping and supplying of fuel and food items to bandits.
A 22-year-old disabled man identified as Buhari Haruna of Kankia Local Government Area Katsina State was among the suspects.
Haruna was arrested on August 28, 2021, at about 12:00 pm after he was said to have sent a threat message to one Hamisu Saminu demanding the sum of two million naira.
The police spokesman, SP Gambo Isah, while parading the suspect at the Katsina Police Command Headquarters said the victim reported the matter at the Kankia Police Division where preliminary investigations led to the arrest of the suspect.
He said, “What happened was that the police advised the victim to comply with the suspect’s demands, and he mentioned a location where the two million naira ransom would be paid which our men succeeded in arresting him.
“Unfortunately, we saw this man crawling to get the ransom”.
Similarly, five commercial drivers were arrested for buying fuel in large quantities with the intent to take it to the forest to sell to some suspected bandits at an exorbitant price in the forest.
The command has also rearrested another suspect with a sack containing bread meant to be supplied to some suspected bandits after being warned severally to stop the business.
Furthermore, two youths have also been arrested for vandalising a transformer in the Bindawa Local Government Area of the state.
They were arrested after they stole an armoured cable valued at over ₦250,000.
Isah, however, called on the good people of the state to always report to the police or any other security agencies whenever they come across any threat of being kidnapped for immediate action.
All the suspects have confessed to their crimes pleading with the authorities to temper justice with mercy.
The police have paraded one Bishir Hayatu accused of stealing a Toyota Hilux Vehicle belonging to the Katsina State Government.
The 32-year-old suspect was arrested on August 27 at Dayi village in Malumfashi Local Government Area of the state while trying to take the vehicle to Abuja for sale.
Spokesman of the State Police Command, SP Gambo Isah, while parading the suspect said he specializes in stealing vehicles in the state.
He maintained that the stolen white Toyota HILUX Vehicle with Registration number (KT 76 B01) belongs to the Katsina State Government under the office of the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Mustapha Inuwa.
“We immediately followed after the vehicle after the case was reported to the police. We used all our scientific methods in an effort to arrest the suspect,” he said.
Speaking further, Isah stated that some months ago the suspect was arrested and paraded for a similar offence bordering on car theft.
“He has been a customer with the police. He was released on bail by the court with regards to the previous case he had. This is because the case of theft is sometimes bailable offence,” he said.
The suspect had, during the police interrogation, confessed to being in the business of buying and selling stolen vehicles for a long period of time.
He, however, denied engaging in stealing vehicles.
“I am not responsible for stealing this vehicle, the man who stole it is Nigerien identified as Sani Maradi. After the man stole the vehicle, he asked me to take it to Abuja and my commission was N20,000.
“And with regards to my previous case, I am currently on bail,” the suspect said.
The Police in Katsina State have arrested several suspects in connection with banditry, cattle rustling and kidnapping.
They were arrested by officers on patrol while plying the Kankara-Sheme road in Dutsinma Local Government Area of the State.
While parading the suspects before the command headquarters on Wednesday in the state capital, the spokesman of the Command, SP Gambo Isah, said three suspected bandit informants were equally arrested between the Katsina and Zamfara border while conveying 80 assorted domestic animals on a canter vehicle to Abuja.
He explained that the three suspected informants are residents of Wanzamai village located at Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
SP Isah further stated that four suspected thieves were arrested for vandalising transformers in Kaita Local Government Area and in Mahuta village of Dandume Local Government Area of the state.
In the meantime, an additional two suspected bandit informants and suppliers of fuel to bandits were arrested by the police while on patrol.
The suspects simply identified as Isiya Abdullahi and Usman Mamman – all from Danmusa Local Government Council of Katsina State – were intercepted while conveying two drums fully loaded with fuel on a Golf (III) vehicle.
Another suspected notorious bandit identified as Auwal Aliyu was also arrested for impersonating vigilante group members of Batsari Local Government Area of the state.
According to the police spokesman, the 32-year-old suspect and fugitive of Niger State has been on the wanted list of the State Police Command for his engagement in banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling as well as feeding the bandits with information.
The arrests are part of the recent achievements recorded by the command in the fight against banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping and other associated crimes in the state.
The Police have arrested 13 suspected criminals linked to theft, banditry and kidnapping in Katsina State.
Among those arrested was a 40-year-old man, suspected to be a bandits’ informant in Faskari Local Government Area of the state.
The suspect identified as Abdullahi Sani of Ruwan Godiya Village in Faskari LGA was arrested on August 12, at about 4:00 pm as part of the recent achievements recorded by the Command in the fight against crime in the state.
In a press briefing held at the command headquarters on Friday, the Police Spokesman, SP Gambo Isah, explained that prior to his arrest, the suspect was overheard discussing with a notorious bandit leader (Alhaji Ado Buji) over the phone, and was strongly suspected by the community to be an informant to the bandits.
Isah said that during the investigations, the suspect confessed to the crime and revealed that some time ago he was given the sum of N800,000 to buy essential needs for the said bandit leader and his camp.
According to Isah, the suspect also stated that one Mallam Mustapha Isah, from Ruwan Godiya village, Faskari LGA was the one who introduced him to the said bandits’ leader.
“He was later traced and arrested,” the police spokesperson said.
The suspect also confessed to running errands for the bandits and collecting the sum of N200,000 from the said Alh Ado Buji.
The command has also succeeded in arresting 13 other suspects including a fake officer of the Nigeria Correctional Services, errand boys of a notorious leader of a bandits’ group among others.
Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari, has called on residents in the areas prone to banditry to acquire weapons and defend themselves against the outlaws.
While noting that prayers are important, the governor said it was morally wrong for people to submit meekly to the bandits without any attempt to defend themselves.
“We must intensify prayers with clean minds to seek God’s forgiveness and intervention.
“We must all rise up to counter the insecurity challenge, we must not seat and watch some people buying guns attacking our Houses, we too should buy the guns and protect ourselves,” he said.
The governor said this on Tuesday when he paid a condolence and sympathy visit to families of 10 persons who were killed after being hit by a Nigeria Customs vehicle.
He also believes that it is the people’s meek submission that emboldens the bandits to continue with their heinous activities, stressing that people must divorce their minds from the mistaken notion that security is the sole responsibility of the government.
Addressing the issue of the incident, Governor Masari assured the people that the government was perusing all the necessary legal steps to seek redress for the families of the deceased, as well as those who sustained various degrees of injuries.
He added that legal experts had already been consulted to advise on the way forward to ensure speedy (legal) resolution of the matter.
The governor, however, cautioned the families of the victims not to succumb to any covert enticement from the Nigerian Customs Service, saying that doing so will compromise the government’s efforts to secure justice for the bereaved and injured.
“What Customs operatives are doing is wrong, and therefore, unacceptable,” Governor Masari said.
“Do not succumb to any covert enticement from the customs service, no matter what they offer or promise to do for you.
“Whatever they want to do for you, let it be in the open, not in secret.
“If you accept any secret offer, then you will be truncating the government’s efforts to seek justice for you, but if you resist any untoward move, the organisation will then have to rethink its attitude towards its host community”.
At least 196 solar-powered water supply facilities have been constructed, upgraded, and rehabilitated across six local government areas in Katsina State.
The Minister of Water Resources, Engineer Suleiman Adamu, disclosed this in Bindawa, one of the beneficiary communities on Wednesday.
The rehabilitation exercise comes less than one month after President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned and handed over the recently completed Zobe Regional Water Treatment Plant Project located at Dutsinma Local Government Area of the state.
In addition to the new facilities, a training was organised for some selected water facilities managers under the PEWASH program.
The programme, otherwise called Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene, is an intervention that seeks to increase access to water supply and sanitation, for the achievement of SDG targets 6.1 and 6.2 by 2030, in the rural areas across the country.
Aimed at equipping the water facilities managers with basic knowledge, the training would assist them in addressing challenges that they may likely face in the course of discharging their duties.
Representing the minister, the Desk Officer in charge of the Ministry’s PEWASH Program, Mr. Namdam Nakyan, announced that the facilities provided will be 100% owned, operated, managed, and maintained by the beneficiary communities.
He said a total of 1,140 water supply facilities in 1,140 beneficiary communities were constructed, upgraded, and rehabilitated in 34 LGAs across the six zones in the country, under the 50% Federal Government component.
“It is, therefore, necessary for us to ensure proper utilization of the water supply facilities, to ensure continuous functionality of the facilities with a view to having an adequate supply of water to fight these diseases,” Mr Nakyan told the new facilities managers.
Earlier in his address, the Executive Director of Katsina Rural Water Supply Scheme Agency (RUWASSA), Engineer Aminu Dayyabu Safana, represented by the Agency’s Public Relations Officer, Abubakar Abdullahi commended the effort of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for its intervention which he believed will better the lives and enhance the health status of the Katsina people.
Abdullahi, while calling on the beneficiaries to form community committees aimed at saving all funds generated from the water users in their respective communities to sustain and maintain the facilities, noted that socio-economic activities would not go on smoothly without a potable water supply.
Two of the facilities managers, identified as Hamza Yahaya and Abdussalam Abdullahi, described the project as a welcome development and one that has come at the right time when people in their community were hitherto experiencing water scarcity.
They thanked the Federal and state governments for the gesture and pledged to properly maintain the facilities and ensure their sustainability.
In March, the Katsina State Government had promised that it would lay a solid foundation to restore the entire water sector in the state, with a multi-billion naira water project aimed at covering 70 per cent of the Katsina population.
He said upon completion of the project, waterborne diseases, maternal mortalities, as well as the cost of medications among the Katsina residents will be reduced to the barest minimum.
He further revealed that the present state administration has successfully drilled over 1,700 boreholes across the 34 LGAs with each of the LGAs having at least not less than 50 boreholes.
The Police have recovered at least 300 rustled livestock mostly cattle, goats and sheep in Kaduna State.
The feat was recorded on Saturday evening after bandits riding on over 40 motorcycles stormed some villages.
They were said to have rustled the animals after raiding some villages in Safana, Kurfi and Dutsinma LGAs of the state between 17:00 and 20:00.
A combined team of policemen and vigilante group were, however, immediately mobilised and blocked the hoodlums at their exit route into the forest between Dagarawa and Tsaskiya. They engaged them in a fierce gun duel and recovered all the rustled animals.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Police Spokesman, SP Gambo Isah, noted that many of the bandits responsible for the attack had fled with various bullet wounds.
He said officers of the command are still combing the area with a view to arresting the fleeing bandits or recovering their dead bodies as well as their weapons.
At least sixty persons lost have their lives across many communities in Katsina State following the outbreak of cholera in the state.
The state Commissioner for Health, Yakubu Danja disclosed this on Saturday during the 2021 Annual General Meeting of the State chapter of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) held in the state capital.
He, however, did not indicate when the deaths were recorded.
Danja who revealed that health education regarding the prevention and management of the disease as well as active case search and surveillance were ongoing across the 34 LGAs of the state, explained that assorted drugs had already been purchased by the State Government for distribution to hospitals across the state for the treatment of the disease.
“We are aware of the current outbreak of diarrhea and vomiting that is affecting some communities in the state. The state government is making efforts towards control of the outbreak,” the commissioner said.
“Free drugs for the treatment of this outbreak are been purchased for distribution to hospitals for treatment of the cases.
“Health education on prevention and management of the disease is ongoing. Active case search and surveillance is also ongoing across the state.
“Presently, we have over 1,400 confirmed cases of cholera with over 60 recorded deads. Let me seize this opportunity to draw the attention of the general public to the fact that diarrhea and vomiting is a preventable disease.”
The Health Commissioner further admonished residents in the state to ensure proper environmental sanitation, frequent hand washing, proper food hygiene, washing of all fruits and vegetables before eating as well as proper cooking of food items.
Danja tasked food vendors to ensure that they cover their food items to avoid contact with flies.
The police in Katsina State have arrested several suspects in connection to banditry, gunrunning, rape, armed robbery and other related crimes in the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the command, SP Gambo Isah, disclosed this at a press briefing held on Friday at the command headquarters in the state.
According to Isah, one of the suspects, 27-year-old Aisha Nura from Baranda village, a Fulani settlement at Batsari Local Government Area of the state, was arrested on July 25, at about 09:00 am, based on a tip-off.
“Immediately she was searched, the sum of two million four hundred and five thousand naira was found in her possession suspected to be proceeds of arms supplied to bandits in Kaduna State”.
In the course of the investigation, the suspect admitted to committing the offense, saying she was sent to collect the money on behalf of her husband, Nura Alhaji Murnai, who is also a notorious bandit, from his counterparts in the Kaduna forest.
In a separate operation, the command on July 27, succeeded in busting five suspects belonging to a notorious group who had at different intervals raped a 17-year-old boy.
The command also on July 19 succeeded in arresting a member of a notorious armed robbery syndicate terrorizing Batsari Local Government Area of the state.
In the course of investigations, the suspect confessed to committing crimes and further stated that he conspired with two other persons Ila Lawal and Jamilu Murnai who are now at large.
The command has also confirmed the recovery of 15 wheelchairs and the arrest of an undisclosed number of suspected receivers of the wheelchairs donated last week by the Katsina State Government to some physically challenged persons in the state.
“After signing an agreement with the state government that the wheelchairs are not for sale, some unscrupulous persons among the beneficiaries sold them out at a cheaper price.
“The command is dismayed that wheelchairs bought by the State Government at the cost of N150,000 each were sold at N7,000.
“This singular attitude is an example of series of sabotage of government efforts by some citizens who have benefitted from various empowerment programs but have decided to throw them away. Investigation is ongoing,” Isah noted.
President Muhammadu Buhari is on his way to Abuja after spending eight days in his country home, Daura Katsina State.
Before his departure at about 4:00 pm on Friday, the president received the guard of honour from troops of the Nigerian Army and Nigerian Air Force operating under the 17 brigade and 213 Forward Operating Base respectively.
The State Governor, Aminu Masari, his deputy, Mannir Yakubu, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Tasiu Maigari and other top government functionaries including well-meaning citizens in the state amidst tight security personnel were on the ground at the Umaru Musa Yar’adua International Airport to bid farewell to the president.
Earlier in the week, the President commissioned a number of projects completed by both the federal and state governments, including the commissioning of Organic Integrated Farm Estate established by the National Land Development Authority (NALDA) located in the outskirts of Daura.
The farm has the capacity to generate over ₦1.7 billion in the first year.
During his stay in Daura, the President also joined Muslim faithful to mark the Eid-el-Kabir festivities.
Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the state also paid him a visit to mark the event.
In return, the President gifted them two cows, 20 bags of rice and ₦1million.
