The police have arrested the suspected killers of a Catholic seminarian, Nnadi Michael, of the Catholic Good Shepherd Major Seminary at Gonin Gora, Kakau in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The gang had on January 9, 2020, stormed the Catholic seminary and kidnapped four seminarians, murdered one of them and released the remaining three on January 31 having obtained a ransom.
The remains of the fourth seminarian were found in a bush.
A statement on Sunday by Force spokesman, Frank Mba, named the suspects as Tukur Usman, 37, father of seven; Shehu Bello, 40, father of five; and Mustapha Mohammed, 30, father of one, all of Igabi LGA of Kaduna State.
The statement said they were arrested after several months of intensive and extensive intelligence-led operations by crack detectives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
“Discreet investigations so far reveal that the arrested suspects are part of a 19-man gang that also carried out the kidnap of Dr Phillip Ataga’s wife and two daughters on January 24, 2020 at Juji Community in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State,” the statement said.
“Mrs Ataga was killed by the gang following her heroic resistance to the despicable and inhuman attempt by the leader of the gang to rape her. The suspects after killing her released the daughters and corpse of the slain woman to the family after collecting ransom.
“Further investigations reveal that the same criminal gang is responsible for the kidnap of six students and two teachers of Engravers College, Chikun LGA, Kaduna, from their school premises on October 3, 2019.
“The suspects, known to belong to a hybrid terrorist criminal network causing untold havoc in North-Central, Nigeria, have confessed to several other random operations along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway where they kidnapped, killed and robbed motorists, collecting ransom and valuables running into millions of naira.”
According to the statement, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, assured the nation that the police would not rest until the other fleeing members of the gang are apprehended and brought to book.
