Police capture three killers of Catholic seminarian in Kaduna as IGP orders manhunt for others

The police have arrested the suspected killers of Michael Nnadi, of the Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Chikun Council of Kaduna State.

On January 9, 2020, a criminal gang had stormed the Catholic seminary and kidnapped four young men. After collecting ransom, they murdered one of them and released the remaining three on January 31. The corpse of the deceased was found in a bush later.

Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Frank Mba, disclosed the arrest in a statement yesterday in Abuja.

He identified the suspects as Tukur Usman ‘m’ aged 37, father of seven; Shehu Bello ‘m’ aged 40, father of five; and Mustapha Mohammed ‘m’ aged 30, father of one, all of Igabi Council of Kaduna State. Crack detectives from the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) arrested them after months of intelligence-led operations.

“Discreet investigations so far reveal that the arrested suspects are part of a 19-man gang that also carried out the kidnap of Dr. Phillip Ataga’s wife and two daughters on January 24, 2020 at Juji Community in Chikun.

“Mrs. Ataga was killed by the gang following her heroic resistance to the despicable and inhuman attempt by the leader of the gang to rape her. The suspects, after killing her, released the daughters and corpse of the slain woman to the family after collecting ransom,” he said.

Mba explained that investigations reveal that the same criminal gang was responsible for the kidnap of six students and two teachers of Engravers College, Chikun, from their school premises on October 3, 2019.

“The suspects, known to belong to a hybrid terrorist criminal network causing untold havoc in North Central Nigeria, have confessed to several other random operations along Abuja/Kaduna Expressway where they kidnapped, killed and robbed motorists, collecting ransom and valuables running into millions of naira.

“The IGP, Mohammed Adamu, while reiterating that the Force will remain unrelenting in ensuring that crimes across the country are reduced to the barest minimum, assures the nation that the Force will not rest until the other members of the gang also responsible for the above crimes, but currently on the run, are apprehended and brought to book.”