Local vigilantes and hunters arrested two suspected kidnappers who had been terrorising villages in Ningi LGA of Bauchi State.
The leader of the vigilante and hunters’ group, presented the kidnapped kidnappers, Salau and Yellow, to the Emir of Ningi, Alhaji Haruna Yunusa Danyaya, at his palace in Ningi on Thursday.
While parading them before the Emir, the leader of the vigilantes and hunters said their apprehension required tiresome surveillance and attentive monitoring.
Among recent targets, according to him, included the Balma and Burra settlements, whose people the kidnappers had kidnapped while demanding ransom.
He further briefed the Emir that the suspects had been terrorizing neighbors in the last three years kidnapping people from time to time, demanding ransoms and sometimes killing victims.
Yellow said the Emir that he was involved in some cases of kidnapping, collecting ransom, and later releasing the victims. He said they had collected at least ₦60 million from their victims and got vital information about their targets from informants.
Yellow promised to cooperate with the police to unravel other members.
Secretary of the Ningi Emirate Council, Usman Suleh Magayaki, while speaking with journalists in Bauchi, said: “These criminals have given us a bad name with their actions within the last three years.
“They kidnapped a lot of innocent people, making families pay huge amounts of money for their release.”
He added, “As you can see, Allah has assisted us. These gallant volunteers, vigilantes, and hunters took risks to comb the woodlands and arrest the culprits. “We are very grateful to them.”
Magayaki said the suspects had since been handed over to security services for further action.
He called upon all the citizens of the Emirate to help clear the area of these criminals and advised vetting of foreigners before allowing them to settle in any part of the community as a way of early detection of criminals.
Contacted for an official comment, the spokesman of the Bauchi State Police Command, SP Ahmed Wakili, said he had not received an official report from the area yet but promised to supply the facts when they became available.
