See Something, Say Something, We Will Do Something-FCT Police Boss Assures Residents

Police Commissioner, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Benneth Igweh, has vowed to rid Abuja, the nation's capital, and environs if residents and concerned members of the public continue to support the command by providing useful information towards achieving the goal.

He made the pledge at the command headquarters, Abuja, on Thursday, while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the fight against crime and criminality in the last seven days.

CP Igweh, who used the occasion to parade a number of suspects apprehend by operatives of the command noted that as long as intelligence information from the public keeps flowing, his command is left without any other option but to succeed in its determination to deal decisively with criminal activities within the FCT and immediate environs.

"...I still want to warn the criminals that it is no longer business as usual. It cannot be business as usual. We are focused, we are determined, we are eager, we have all it takes, intelligence-wise, security-wise, to get you. We have all it takes to get you. As they have reached the level of Jammers to do their acts, we are equally ready to use anti-Jammer to trace them. That is what we will do and are doing.

"I want to appeal to residents of the FCT that when you see something, say something. When you see something and say something, we are going to do something. that’s what we are acting out," he said. 

Among those paraded were a six-member gang that specializes on breaching national security by not only cloning but also mass-producing Sim cards which they sell to criminal gangs, including terrorists and kidnappers.

Ndubuisi Oke, John George, Rafiu Tijjani, Nasiru Suleiman, John Njoku and Suleiman Musa, all members of the gang, were apprehended in Kaduna state with tens of registered and fully operational Sim cards, which they admitted they produced for whoever paid to have them, each costing Five Thousand (N5, 000) Naira.

Operatives also recovered card printing machines alongside a heap of used and printed cards.

"In one of our fights in the kidnapper’s camp, in one of the camps that we went, we discovered that there are a lot of broken sim cards, about about 20 to 30 sim cards broken.

"So we ventured into the place, we started enquiring about why they have a lot of sim cards. As small as they are, they were still broken...we discovered that they are people who specialize in producing active and workable sim cards unknown to our security systems.

"We have six suspects here. We have one Ndubuisi Oke, John George, we have Rafiu Tijani, we have Nasiru Suleiman, John Njoku and we have Suleiman Musa. Six of them. They specialize in the production and selling of already registered sim cards. We found them all in Kaduna state.

"...we recovered the machines and what they are using to produce the sim cards. Our worry is how they bypass the NIN and finger prints required to register sim cards. We recovered from them 1,100 already registered sim cards. They sell them to the bandits, they sell them to the criminal world and they sell to them at the cost of N5,000 for one card."

The Command also paraded two members of a kidnap and an armed robbery syndicate. The duo, Salam Zacheus and Ademola Razak, described as specialists, were said to operate using telecommunication-jamming machines which they deploy in blocking any tracking devices both during kidnap or robbery operation and in their hideouts.

"They are into kidnapping and robbery. We have some of them here, two of them-Salam Zacheus and Ademola Razak. They have confessed to kidnapped and we have recovered the vehicle. It is from them we recovered a Natwork Jammer.

"Once you put it on, no network will work here. They use it both in their operations and in the kidnapper’s camp. They have solar where they socket it and once they socket it, the Jammer will be on, no authority can track it. Once they kidnap anybody and in their vehicle, they will switch it on in the car plug and move throughout the whole country without being noticed or tracked. We have arrested them finally," Igweh disclosed.

A gun runner, Ikechukwu Didi, from Enugu state, was also paraded, alongside seven automatic Pump Action Guns and hundreds of ammunition recovered from him. The arrest of Didi, said to be supplying arms and ammunition to buyers in Niger state, was facilitated by the earlier apprehension of some suspects who fingered him as their source of illegal guns and and ammunition.

The command equally paraded another group of kidnappers and armed robbers who are into cross boundary operations. They were apprehended when one if their victims reported the loss of his Lexus SUV via four armed men in Utako, Abuja.

The command recovered the vehicle but found out that the gang also operated with the use of network jammer, used by one of their members, Mubarak Kabiru, a 36 year-old Nigerien, who help facilitate the movement of stolen vehicles across the Nigerian borders into neighbouring countries, invluding his own, Niger Republic.

Kabiru, who was picked up in Kaduna state, confessed to the crimes, including ownership of the network jammer. He also confessed to having been in the business for over two years.

"They are trans-boundary criminals. They rob in Nigeria and take cars to any of the countries nearby. It was through a report...that his vehicle was robbed by four armed men at Utako, his Lexus SUV removed. Eventually, we have recovered the vehicle and arrested the robbers."

Exhibits recovered and paraded included network jammers, firearms, vehicles, 1,000 registered sim cards, registration machines, two fingerprint machines and one Gionee cell phone.