{"id":65971,"date":"2025-05-18T17:31:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T17:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=65971"},"modified":"2025-05-18T17:31:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T17:31:26","slug":"notorious-kidnap-kingpin-caught-at-abuja-hajj-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/18\/notorious-kidnap-kingpin-caught-at-abuja-hajj-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Notorious Kidnap Kingpin Caught at Abuja Hajj Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Security operatives have arrested a high-profile kidnapping suspect, Yahaya Zango, at the Hajj camp of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, while he attempted to sneak into the Saudi-bound pilgrim group.<\/p>\n<p>Zango, who hails from Paikon-Kore in Gwagwalada Area Council, had been on the radar of security agencies for his alleged involvement in multiple abduction cases across the Federal Capital Territory.<\/p>\n<p>His plan to flee under the cover of religious pilgrimage was foiled during a routine document screening by operatives of the Department of State Services.<\/p>\n<p>Officials revealed that the fugitive was quietly picked up during verification checks on Sunday after being flagged by intelligence agents embedded within the camp.<\/p>\n<p>A source at the FCT Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board confirmed the arrest and noted that Zango had successfully posed as a genuine pilgrim with full documentation until sharp-eyed operatives intervened.<\/p>\n<p>Although security agencies are yet to issue a formal statement, sources say investigations are already underway to determine the full extent of his criminal network.<\/p>\n<p>Zango\u2019s arrest highlights the growing alertness of security agencies, especially at major public venues during peak travel seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Security operatives have arrested a high-profile kidnapping suspect, Yahaya Zango, at the Hajj camp of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, while he attempted to sneak into the Saudi-bound pilgrim group. Zango, who hails from Paikon-Kore in Gwagwalada Area Council, had been on the radar of security agencies for his alleged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":65972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-65971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65973,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65971\/revisions\/65973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}