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The Kaduna State Police Command has hinted that it was negotiating with abductors of the six female students, a teacher and a matron, who were kidnapped from their school on Thursday, October 3, 2019.
Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, Ali Aji-Janga, said the police opted to negotiate with the kidnappers so as not to endanger the lives of the girls.
It also paraded 50 suspects allegedly involved in various criminal activities across the state and recovered 27 guns.
“We are negotiating with the kidnappers to rescue the students and their teachers, we know their location, but we do not want to endanger their lives.
Most of the kidnappers are operating under the influence of hard drugs, so killing is nothing to them and that is why we are still negotiating with them and as soon as the victims are released, we will go after them.
“We assure the people of Kaduna state that we will arrest the kidnappers very soon. The mistake has been made by the school authority, but we will do our best to ensure the release of the victims,” Janga said.
He disclosed that among the 50 suspects arrested were those who abducted an Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Algarkawi and a member of the state House of Assembly, Suleiman Dabo.
“Most of the suspects confessed to being responsible for terrorising our highways and kidnapping Sheik Ahmad Algarkawi, killing of three operatives of IGP’s Intelligent Response Team (IRT) in 2018 and the recent kidnapping of ABU students and Dabo,” he added.
Aji-Janga explained that arrest of the suspects was the result of a carefully planned and coordinated operation carried out by the command, adding that the suspects were being held for kidnapping, armed banditry, cattle rustling, rape, culpable homicide, theft and receipt of stolen property.
Among the items recovered from them were 20 AK47 rifles, one assault rifle, three Beretta pistols, three locally made pistols, 135 live ammunition, four vehicles and one tricycle.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, who was at the briefing, urged people to volunteer information to the police to ease their work.