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| The suspects |
Dzarma, along with Reverends Emmanuel Dziggau and Iliya Anto were abducted along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway.
They had gone to clear a piece of land for the foundation of their church seminary. They are clerics with United Church of Christ in Nigeria. They were released after 10 days in the kidnappers’ den. Although Dzarma and Dziggau lived to tell the story of the kidnap, Anto didn’t.
The decomposing body of Anto was found after the release of his colleagues. The victims were released after payment of N4m ransom. Dzarma said that the Fulani herdsmen were armed with rifles, machetes and sticks. They also had four camps inside the bush.
There are about 10 men in each of the camp. The Fulani herdsmen introduced themselves to one of their victims as Boko Haram members. This revelation comes on the heels of arguments and counter arguments that the Fulani herdsmen may be Boko Haram members. Dzarma was disturbed after his release because they left four ladies, including a pregnant one, as hostages in the kidnappers’ camp.
His words: “They gave us five days to pay the ransom or they would kill us. We however stayed nine days before a ransom of N4million was paid. They shot sporadically into the air while we were at the camp. We also left four kidnapped women in the camp. One of them was pregnant.
I can identify one of the suspects arrested by the IRT operatives. His name is Kasimu Shehu.” Angry at the hell unleashed by the gang in Kaduna State, the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, ordered his Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT, to hunt down the kidnappers.
After two weeks of surveillance, the team finally nailed the suspects. A police source said: “These men held Kaduna State hostage. They were made up of Fulani herdsmen. The suspects were rounded up from their hideouts in Kaduna and Zaria areas of the state.
They were behind the March 21, 2016, abduction of the President and Vice President of United Church of Christ in Nigeria, HEKAN, Reverend Emmanuel Dziggan, Reverend Iliya Anthony and a pastor of the church, Reverend Yakubu Dzarma , at Dutse Village, Kaduna State.
The gang also kidnapped a staff of the Presidential Villa, Abuja and many others.” Members of the gang have been identified as Kashimu Shehu aka Baliago , the gang leader, Aliyu Mato, aka, Yellow, Muhammedu Mamman, Hassan Bello, Bala Mohammed and Ishiaku Kabiru.
They often lay ambush for victims along the highway. Once they get a victim, they would force the person to trek for hours into a deep forest, off the Abuja- Kaduna Road. They have their camps inside the forest. Police said the gang had raked in millions from kidnapping.
Two of the suspects, Kabiru and Bello, were arrested at a naming ceremony organised by their gang leader, Shehu, at Gidan Kasimu, Mai-Yahsi Village, in Dutse- Wai Kubua Local Government Area of Kaduna State. They were later used as baits to apprehend other members of the gang.
Dzarma, 63, recalled how he and other reverends were kidnapped. He said: “I and Reverend Emmanuel and Ilia Anto, went to clear the church site for a seminary school around 4pm. We had already finished the clearing and were about to leave when some hoodlums, armed with AK47 rifles, surrounded us. They ordered us to surrender all our valuables.
They collected N64,000, my Tecno Phone valued at 78,000 and my shoes, valued at N20,000. They ordered us into the bush and we started trekking. After an hour trekking, one of our pastors, Anto, who was sick, told them that he could not go further. He complained of ill health.
“They started beating him. When they saw that he wasn’t ready to move, they left him. They collected his phone, dialled the last number in its call log and told the person that answered to come and pick him. They gave the person the location where they left Anto. We continued trekking.
At least 24 hours later, we got to their camp. They had four camps within the area.” He said that in each of the camps, the kidnappers had 10 men armed with AK47 rifles. The next day, one of the kidnappers used Dzarma’s phone to contact his wife and demanded ransom. Mr. Muhammed Dan Azumi, 40, is the civil servant man working with the Presidency that was kidnapped when he went for prayers. He was abducted on April 14, 2016. Azumi said: “I, my wife and another woman, Hajara, were praying at Audu Jangwan when the hoodlums came out of nowhere and surrounded us.
They allowed my wife to go because she was eight months pregnant. On our way, one of them took Hajara on a motorbike and moved her to the camp.”Azumi said that the kidnappers were six men, armed with Ak47 rifles, machetes and sticks. They introduced themselves to the frightened victims as Boko Haram members.
Azumi added: “They told us that they were Boko Haram members. We trekked for 18 hours inside the bush before we got to an uncompleted building. They use it as their camp. They asked us to cooperate with them or they would kill us. They demanded N10m ransom.
They later collected N1m from my boss before we were released after three days.” Azumi further said that the Fulani herdsmen collected the sum of N20,000 that was with him and inflicted a deep cut on his head on the day they swooped on them at the prayer ground.
He was able to identify Aliyu Haruna as one of the kidnappers. One of the suspects, Haruna, 30, said he attended Alamajiri School at Gidan Abdulmumuni, Sabo Gayan Village. He described himself as a farmer and cattle rearer. The father of three said that he has 10 cows. He explained that he was arrested at a naming ceremony on April 24, by policemen from Abuja.
The naming ceremony was organised by Kasimu Shehu, leader of the gang. Haruna said he joined the gang in April 2016, adding that it was made up of six members. He recounted that the gang used to operate with one AK 47 rifle, which was always with Shehu.
Sometime in April 2016, Shehu called Haruna and asked him to bring food. He took the food to the venue and discovered that the gang had kidnapped a man from Auden Jangwan Village, off Kaduna-Abuja Expressway. He said: “I saw Shehu with an AK 47 rifle in the bush.
Shehu promised to pay me N200,000 once the ransom had been paid, but I was given just N1, 000 after I delivered the food. Mohammedu Maman, a cousin to Kasimu Shehu, is also our gang member. His duty is to guard the hostages in the camp. He was the one who guarded the man kidnapped at the Presidency.”
Stating his own side of the story, Haruna, 30, father of five, said that he joined the gang last year. He said that sometime in January 2016, the gang kidnapped someone and collected ransom. He was given N100,000 as his own share of the money.
On April 14 they kidnapped Azumi. He said: “We found him praying along the road and ordered him to follow us at gun point. We got a ransom of N1m before the man was released. I got N200,000 as my share. The only role I played was to escort the man from where he was kidnapped to our camp.”
Another suspect, Shehu, 27, owner of 40 cows denied being a member of the gang. He said the victims who identified him and gang members that fingered him, were liars. He said: “I’m not part of the gang as my friends alleged. I’m not the leader of any kidnapping gang.
I’m not among the gang that kidnapped the reverends or a staff of the presidency. I don’t have an Ak47 rifle. But I have a locally made gun. I bought it from an old man, who is dead. I bought it for N600,000. I use the gun to protect my cows. I don’t have a license for the gun. The locally made gun is now with Mathew at Tunga Sabo Village, Rigina, Kaduna State.
He’s repairing it.” The Police Force Public Relation, Olabisi Kolawole, while confirming the report, said the kidnappers, who had been terrorising Kaduna and Zaria areas of Kaduna State would soon be arraigned in court. She added that the arrest of the kidnappers was an indication of the Nigeria Police Force’s commitment to the fight against all forms of crimes and criminality in the country.
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