The Katsina State Government has confirmed that Nura Aliyu Garwa, the suspected mastermind of an urban kidnapping syndicate, had previously been suspended from his role as Senior Special Assistant to Governor Dikko Umaru Radda.
The Katsina State Government has officially confirmed that Nura Aliyu Garwa, who was recently paraded by the police as the suspected mastermind of an urban kidnapping ring, was a former government official who had been suspended from his executive post. According to an official press briefing released on Monday, May 25, 2026, and signed by the Katsina State Commissioner of Information and Culture, Bala Salisu Zango, Garwa previously served as the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor Dikko Umaru Radda on Community Development. The state administration clarified that the suspect was stripped of his official duties long before his arrest after being indicted for the illegal diversion of public empowerment items originally meant for rural communities under the state’s Community Development Programme.
The administrative background emerged just days after the Katsina State Police Command’s Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU) arrested Garwa and five other accomplices for the brutal May 13 abduction of an eight-year-old schoolboy within the Sardauna Housing Estate. State records indicate that despite his high-profile suspension, Garwa had been actively networking within the local political apparatus, having recently declared an ambitious legislative bid to contest for a seat in the Katsina State House of Assembly representing the Batsari Local Government Area constituency. Local security analysts note that the suspect effectively used his residual political capital and neighborhood proximity to gather actionable intelligence on his victims before deploying his operational syndicate to execute the ₦17 million abduction plot.
Reacting directly to the security breakthrough, Governor Dikko Umaru Radda described the dual nature of the suspect’s public profile and secret criminal operations as deeply alarming and highly unfortunate. The governor expressed profound dismay that an individual entrusted with state responsibility and harboring serious legislative aspirations could actively participate in terrorizing the very citizens he sought to represent. While reiterating that his administration maintains a zero-tolerance policy for criminal elements regardless of their proximity to the corridors of power, Governor Radda commended the Commissioner of Police, Ali Umar Fage, and sister security agencies for their uncompromising diligence in tracking down internal and external threats to the state’s stability.
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