By MOHAMMED TIJJANI

The Police Command in Kaduna State said its operatives have arrested a suspected kidnapper who reportedly offered a N1million bribe to them to compromise the investigation.

The command’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mansir Hassan, confirmed the arrest in a statement issued on Thursday in Kaduna.

Hassan said: “The arrest was equal to the directive of the Commissioner of Police (CP) Audu Ali to the personnel to be proactive in their operation using intelligence-based policing approach.”

He said that operatives attached to Police Divisional Headquarters Tafa, has arrested the suspected kidnapper and recovered a shared ransom.

Hassan explained that on January 19, at about 2200 hours, the said Divisional Headquarters was in receipt of credible information regarding the presence of a suspicious person in Easyway Hotel in Tafa town.

He said, “Operatives led by the Divisional Police Officer stormed the hotel and arrested a certain 28-year-old Bello Muhammad from Zamfara and recovered N2.3million suspected to be proceeds of kidnapping.”

According to Hassan, during the course of investigation, the suspect admitted to being a kidnapper who operated with his gang around Kagarko forest in Kaduna.

“The aforementioned sum is his own share of a ransom collected,” Hassan added.

He added that a check of his mobile phone corroborated the suspect’s confession as pictures of him brandishing an AK47 rifle in a forest were retrieved.

“The said suspect Muhammad, offered a million naira backhander to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to stop him furthering the investigation which the Police Officer forthwith rejected,” Hassan added.

He said that investigation was still ongoing as the suspect was assisting the Police with vital information.

The spokesman quoted the CP as praising the Tafa Division’s operatives, urging them and others not to relent but to increase the tempo until crimes and criminality were reduced minimally.

Hassan said that Ali tasked hoteliers, recreation and leisure service operators in the state to always scrutinise the identities of their customers to avoid providing criminals with safe haven. (NAN)

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