By Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Commissioner of Police of Sokoto state Command, Salisu Abdullahi Fagge has said that the Command, as part of its responsibilities of protecting life and properties in the last three months, has recorded successes in crime prevention.
Briefing Newsmen at the Command headquarters in Sokoto on Monday, he disclosed that in the area of armed robbery, a notorious robber, Abdullahi Mamman was arrested on the 28th June 2014, for robbing the people of Malagam village in Tangaza local Government area of the state.
According to Fagge, “Mamman committed the arm robbery together with members of his armed syndicate where one Ladan Mohammed, was killed in the attack.”
While a man-hunt for the remaining armed syndicate was on, he continued, they struck again on the 4th of June, 2015 at Gidan-Daji village in Achida district of Wurno local government. “During the attack, policemen and members of the public swooped on the armed robbers. One of them was killed in a gun duel while the leader of the gang, Yanta Garba was arrested. He is assisting the police to effect the arrest of other fleeing members. As a result, two other members of his gang , Bami Shehu and Shehu Abdullahi (alias Dan-Illela), who is the armourer of the gang, were arrested.”
He added that arms recovered during the operation included a rifle with 22mm calibre of ammunition, three (3) rounds of live ammunition, cutlass and stick and two (2) cutlass sheath while further investigations revealed that the same syndicate was responsible for various armed robbery that took place in Rabah, Gwadabawa and Kware local government of the state.
Fagge further said that the Command received a distress call on Friday 5th of June, 2015 about a group of miscreants who were unleashing terror on some innocent people along Rijiya area in Sokoto metropolis.
“The robbers were alleged to have attacked a notable dealer of exotic handsets and its accessories. In the attack, two persons were fatally injured and disposed of their mobile phones. One of the suspects, Jamilu Ahmed (alias Ciwo) was arrested through information and assisted the Police in the arrest of four other members of the armed robbery group,” he said.
Those arrested and the weapons recovered were Kasimu Abubakar (alias Timaya), Muddasiru Umar (alias Black), Ibrahim Abdullahi and Tsalha Ibrahim (alias Dansharri) while four other members of the gang are still at large.
Items recovered were one Gionee P3 mobile phone, two SIM cards and one long spike headed sword popularly called, gariyo.
On car theft, the Commissioner said that a gand of car thieves, whose members are known as Uche Okpara and Ndubusi Okafor, who hails from Delta state were arrested in Asaba through intelligence sharing for stealing a Toyota Camry car with registration number JR 394 KJA on the 4th of May, 2015.
“On interrogation, they claimed that the master keys they used in all their operations were provided by one Nasiru Mijinyawa, presently a member of Sokoto State Marshal Agency. All the suspects are in custody and will soon be arraigned in court,” Fagge assured.
He called on members of the public to continue to cooperate with the Police in sharing information in order to curb crime in the state.
