Vigilante group commander, 15 members in kidnapping, ritual murders

After killing and harvesting organs of no fewer than 6 victims, including a policeman, the head of a vigilante group and his members have been arrested in the Ankpa area of Kogi.

The IGP Strike Force, according to a Wednesday statement from the Abuja Force Headquarters, descended on the area after many complaints of disappearance and ritual murders of citizens in Kogi and its neighbours.

Heading the criminal gang are Abdulahi Ibrahim, Shaibu Adamu, and Yakubu Hamidu, a 39-year-old who was the commander of the Ankpa Vigilante Group.

While Adamu, 43, is the second oldest of the gang, Isaac Alfa, 19, and Idoko Benjamin, 20, are the youngest of the 16. Both come from Ankpa, too.

“In the course of investigation, it was discovered that this gang from information and intelligence gathered from public spirited individuals and other residents, were responsible for kidnapping, gruesome murder, and ritual killings of innocent people in Kogi , travellers passing through, and strangers coming into towns in the area were mostly victims,” Force PRO Jimoh Moshood said in the statement.

Hamidu and his members, now in police custody and paraded Friday in Abuja, have confessed to the crime, and admitted that they were sponsored and working for Ibrahim Ali a.k.a Halims, and  Adamu a.k.a Aye Marina whom they handover the severed body parts to after killing their victims.

“Aye Marina’s driver, known as Zakaru, receives the body parts from Hamidu.”
Recovered are one pump-action rifle, two locally fabricated single barrel guns, and three short axes.

One of the axes was said to have been used to attack a police officer Abdul Alfa on November 28 in 2017 in the Ofu LGA.

Five of the gangsters, including 21-year-old Akwu Audu, confessed to ambushing Alfa, killing him, and taking away his rifle.

Amongst their dead victims identified so far were James, Christopher, Mohammed, Small Case, Omu, and Alfa–all male.

Moshood said investigation is being concluded and efforts intensified to arrest other suspects before they will all be arraigned.