Police save three-year-old boy, arrest four suspects in kidnapping cases

The police in Katsina State have saved a three-year-old boy and arrested four suspects linked to two child-abduction cases that involved ransom demands.

The police said the suspects are part of a group that targets children under five years old and uses Point-of-Sale (POS) accounts to collect ransom payments.

The spokesperson for the police, Abubakar Aliyu, shared this information in a statement released on Tuesday, 20 October.

The inquiry started on 5 October when Abubakar Ahmed Rufa’i told the police Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU) in Katsina that his four-and-a-half-year-old son had been taken on 30 September.

The kidnappers first asked for ₦5 million but later said they would take ₦20,000 as feeding money before letting the child go, according to the police.

The payment was made through POS accounts, leading to the arrest of two operators, Abubakar Muntari and Aminu Idris, who allegedly received and withdrew the money.

Three days later, on 8 October, another resident, Abdulrahaman Bello, reported that his three-year-old son was missing.

Mr Bello told the police that the kidnappers called him on the phone, asking for a ransom and an extra ₦100,000 for the child's feeding.

Police investigators connected the two cases through what they called technical analysis.

At about 10:15 p.m. on 8 October, detectives caught a 16-year-old suspect who was allegedly trying to collect money at a POS terminal.

The police said the two previously arrested operators pointed out the teenager as the person who received the ₦20,000 payment in the first case.

The teenager admitted to being involved in the abductions and took detectives to a hideout where they found the three-year-old boy safe.

During this operation, police also arrested another suspect, Aminu Musa, who is 20 years old.

The police claimed that Mr Musa had been guarding the kidnapped child and was part of the ransom discussions.

A SIM card that was allegedly used to talk to the families of the victims was also found.

While questioning the suspects, they named two other alleged members of the group, identified only as Ibrahim and Mohammed, also called Malam.

The police said both men are still on the run, and efforts are ongoing to catch them and find other suspected members of the group.

The Commissioner of Police in Katsina State, Ali Fage, urged POS operators and other financial service agents to check customers' identities and report any suspicious transactions to the police.

He also promised that the police would keep working against those involved in child abductions.