The Katsina State Police Command has smashed a seven-man kidnapping syndicate, arresting six suspects and recovering ₦7.5 million of the ransom money paid to secure the release of an eight-year-old boy.
Operatives of the Katsina State Police Command have successfully dismantled a notorious seven-man kidnapping syndicate operating within the state metropolis, arresting six of its members and recovering part of a multi-million naira ransom payment. The coordinated sting operation was spearheaded by detectives attached to the command’s newly established Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU), who acted on actionable intelligence to track down the network. According to a Saturday press briefing by the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu, the gang was responsible for the high-profile abduction of an eight-year-old boy who was snatched at approximately 6:00 p.m. on May 13, 2026, while returning home from his evening Islamic school lessons.
The criminal syndicate had initially contacted the victim’s traumatized family the day after the abduction, aggressively demanding a steep ₦50 million ransom to guarantee the child’s safe release. Following days of tense, unassisted negotiations, the family ultimately capitulated and paid ₦17 million to the suspects, prompting the syndicate to free the young boy. However, once the case was officially reported to the police command, high-tech surveillance and tracking systems were deployed to pinpoint the suspects’ hideouts. Investigators uncovered that the entire operation was engineered by 39-year-old Nura Aliyu, who shocked the community upon his arrest when he was unmasked as an immediate neighbor to the victim’s family.
Alongside the mastermind, the police identified the other detained accomplices as Abubakar Aminu, 37; Ibrahim Muhammad, 51; Iliyasu Sani, 51; Abubakar Muhammad, 27; and Abdullahi Isma’il, 30. During interrogation, the suspects fully confessed to their involvement in the cross-metropolis crime and identified a remaining co-conspirator, known simply as Abdul, who managed to evade the initial dragnet. While a massive manhunt remains active to capture the fleeing suspect, the Katsina State Commissioner of Police, Ali Umar Fage, commended his team for recovering a Peugeot 307 operational vehicle, a Boxer motorcycle, and ₦7.5 million in cash, reiterating that the command will relentlessly sustain its kinetic drive to eliminate kidnapping from the state.
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