A father and two of his sons were among sixteen suspects paraded on Monday by the Katsina State police command for alleged banditry and supply of weapons to bandits.
Two General Purpose Machine Guns, one LAR rifle, and 200 pieces of anti-aircraft ammunition allegedly recovered from the suspects were among the items also displayed during the parade.
The arms dealer, Haruna Yusuf, 47; his two sons Shuaibu Haruna, 18, Murtala Haruna, 20, and his nephew Ibrahim Salisu, 20, all of Sawarya village, Kaita Local Government Area of Katsina State were paraded.
Those paraded also included were two Nigeriens, Ibrahim Dabo,19, and Umar Bello, 28.
The Katsina police commissioner, Sanusi Buba, who briefed the press during the parade of the suspects and the display of the recovered items, did not reveal when the suspects were arrested.
The commissioner, however, attributed the arrest and the recovery of the items to “credible intelligence”.
He explained, “Based on credible intelligence, the command has been following a lead, on one Lawan Zayyana, M, 35 years of Muduru village, Mani Local Government Area of Katsina state, a notorious bandit and arms and ammunition supplier to bandits in the forest.
“In the course of the investigation, the suspect was trailed and arrested after a serious gun battle which led to the arrest of his cohorts; namely Haruna Yusuf,m, aged 47 years of Sawarya village, Kaita LGA of Katsina State; Haruna Adamu, M, aged 35 years and Auwal Abubakar, M, aged 28 years both of Muduru village, Mani LGA of Katsina State.
“Consequently, Haruna Yusuf confessed to being the gang leader as he usually received the supply of arms and ammunition from Niger Republic and hands over to Lawan Zayyana, Haruna Adamu, and Auwal Abubakar who will, in turn, take the supply to bandits in the forest.
He confessed to having sold over ten thousand arms and ammunition to bandits in the forest.
“Furthermore, Haruna Adamu and Auwal Abubakar confessed to having trafficked several arms and ammunition to bandits at Gurbi and Da-Magaji areas in Zamfara State.”
The police commissioner further revealed that two General Purpose Machine Guns, One LAR rifle, and one hundred and seventy-nine Anti Aircraft ammunition and the sum of three million, four hundred and thirteen thousand and five hundred West African-CFA Franc ( (3,413,500 CFA) were recovered from the suspects.
Also recovered from the suspects were seven motorcycles.
Buba thanked the Inspector General of police, Muhammad Adamu, for what he called his professional suggestions and advice as well the state government assistance that led to the arrest and the recovery.
“We assure them of our commitment to the current efforts at tackling banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, trafficking of arms and ammunition, and other forms of criminality in the state. We shall sustain the commitment,” he declared.
