Crimes

Police foil kidnap attempt in Katsina, kill 3

The officers of the Katsina State Police Command have foiled a kidnap attempt along the Dutsinma-Kankara expressway, killing three suspects in the process.

The command’s spokesman, ASP Abubakar Sadiq-Aliyu, confirmed this in Katsina on Sunday, December 10, 2023.

Sadiq-Aliyu said: “On December 10, 2023, at about 4:30 p.m., based on credible information that some suspected armed robbers and kidnappers, wielding dangerous weapons such as AK-47 rifles, blocked the Dutsinma-Kankara highway in an attempt to kidnap unsuspecting members of the public.

“Upon receipt of the report, Area Commander Dutsinma, promptly mobilised a joint team of police operatives and members of the vigilante and responded to the scene.

“On reaching the scene, the suspected kidnappers opened fire on the operatives, to which the officers valiantly returned fire and succeeded in neutralising three members of the gang.

“One Masa’udu Sani, a member of the vigilante, sustained a gunshot wound on his right hand.”

The police spokesperson added that Sani was responding to treatment, saying efforts were underway with a view to arresting other fleeing suspects.

He stated that the Katsina State Commissioner of Police, Aliyu Abubakar-Musa, has commended the operatives’ professionalism, synergy, and bravery.

He disclosed that the commissioner also urged the officers to sustain the tempo.

Abubakar-Musa also called on the people of the state to keep providing the command and other security agencies with crucial and timely information on criminal activities “so that swift and decisive action could be taken to stop any criminal activity in the state”.

“Also report to the nearest police station any person seen with suspicious injuries, as some of the bandits have escaped the scene with gunshot wounds,” Sadiq-Aliyu quoted the police commissioner as adding.

The Star