The Kaduna Police Command has arrested a suspected kidnapper who allegedly attempted to bribe a Divisional Police Officer with N1 million to compromise the case.

According to Vanguard, the arrest was confirmed by ASP Mamsir Hassan, the spokesperson of the Kaduna Police Command.

According to the statement, the incident occurred on January 19, 2024, around 2200 hours when the Divisional Headquarters received credible information about a suspicious individual at Easyway Hotel in Tafa town.

Acting on this information, operatives led by the Divisional Police Officer conducted a raid on the hotel and apprehended a 28-year-old man named Bello Muhammad from Zamfara State. Additionally, they recovered the sum of two million, three hundred and fifty thousand naira (N2,350,000.00), believed to be proceeds from kidnapping.

The statement reads in part, “During the course of investigation, the suspect admitted to being a kidnapper who operates with his gang around Kagarko Forest in Kaduna. The aforementioned sum is his own share of the ransom collected. Moreover, a check of his mobile phone corroborated the suspect’s confession, as pictures of him brandishing an AK47 rifle in a forest were retrieved.”

“The said suspect, Bello Muhammad, thus offered a million-naira backhander to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to stop him furthering the investigation, which the police officer forthwith rejected. Investigation is still ongoing as the suspect is assisting the police with vital information.”

The Commissioner of Police Kaduna State Command, CP A.D. Ali, while praising the Tafa Division’s Operatives, urged them and others not to dwindle but to increase the tempo until crimes and criminality are reduced minimally.

The also CP tasked hoteliers, recreation, and leisure service operators in the state to always scrutinize the identity of their customers to avoid providing criminals with safe haven,” the spokesperson added.