Police in Kogi arrests 23-year-old NDA dropout, gang members

23-year-old Friday Domozu and his gang members were said to be responsible for the deaths of some kidnap victims whose bodies were retrieved from a forest in Gabije.

The native of Jarkama in Bassa Local Government Area of the state-led police operatives who combed the forest and retrieved the bodies of the two victims, the Force PRO, Frank Mba, said in a statement.

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Six-year-old Farida Yahaya was separated from her parents on November 2, 2020, at the Gabije area of the state after being allegedly kidnapped by Domozu’s gang.

Her family’s failure to meet the “huge” sum of ransom demanded by the kidnappers was said to have led to her death.

In a bid to rescue Yahaya, the police had launched a manhunt into the forest in the Gabije area after apprehending the principal suspect, Friday Domozu.

Domozu, who identified himself as an ex-military trainee, led the police to the deep forest where the remains of the little girl were recovered.

The police said Domozu alongside his gang members also abducted one Abdulraheem, 14, on the same day Yahaya was abducted, but said the little boy narrowly escaped from the kidnappers’ den.

Mba said during the operation, the police operatives also exhumed the decomposed body of another victim who was later identified as 40-year-old Ibrahim Madaki, earlier declared missing.

“The remains of the victims have been deposited for autopsy,” a statement by the NPF read on Wednesday.

Mba noted that Domozu had been declared medically unfit and subsequently withdrawn 5-months into training at the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna.

“Efforts are being intensified to arrest his gang members still at large,” he said.

It could be recalled that 27 traders from the North were last week abducted in Okene, Kogi State, while on transit to Aba in Abia to purchase goods.

The vehicle conveying them was reportedly ambushed by gunmen who whisked them away into the bushes. The gunmen were said to have later demanded the sum of N1 million each as a ransom for their release.

The traders were said to have been released, but information concerning paid ransom or otherwise was not stated by the police.