Officers and men of the Nasarawa State Command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have arrested ten persons in connection with the abduction of John Waje Mamman, the Special Adviser to Nasarawa State Governor on Local Governor, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development.
Mamman who was abducted on Saturday evening at about 8pm from his house at Dari, in the Kokona Local Government Area of the state, was however released on Tuesday night by his abductors.
The kidnappers had earlier demanded N150m ransom, but later settled for N20 million ransom Monday evening from the victim’s family to release him from their custody.
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But it was not clear whether the ransom was paid to the kidnappers or not before his release, but a family friend of the Special Adviser told BusinessDay that his release was made possible following the support of Vigilante group in the area.
Parading the suspects in Lafia, the State Commissioner of Police, Bola Longe, said, “ten alleged kidnappers of the Aide of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, John Mamman have been arrested.
“One was arrested during the kidnap, when my personnel from the Anti-kidnapping unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), State Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (SIIB ) and a crack team put pressure on the kidnappers who were behind the Government Secondary School, Gudi.
“The kidnappers then released John Mamman and we arrested seven of the them.”
The Police chief said that he liaised with the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) to ambush and arrest three youths on a motorcycle with N1,163,500 along Yelwa-Doma road Wednesday morning, adding that one escaped, “but two are in custody.”
According to Longe, one of the suspects, Usman Shehu, aged 22, who confessed to the crime said, he is from Adavi village in Doma Local government area of the state.
