{"id":72325,"date":"2025-08-06T20:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=72325"},"modified":"2025-08-06T20:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:08:15","slug":"police-arrest-suspected-kidnap-kingpin-in-abuja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/06\/police-arrest-suspected-kidnap-kingpin-in-abuja\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Arrest Suspected Kidnap Kingpin in Abuja"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Police Command has arrested a 40-year-old man, Haruna Suleiman, suspected to be the mastermind behind several high-profile kidnappings and extortion cases, including repeated abductions of a prominent Kogi businessman.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to security analyst Zagazola Makama, Suleiman was apprehended on August 3 at about 7:00 p.m. by operatives of the Scorpion Squad at Giri Junction in Gwagwalada, Abuja, following sustained surveillance and digital tracking.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A native of Danja Local Government Area in Katsina State, Suleiman resides in Giri and is believed to have orchestrated the multiple kidnappings of 79-year-old Alhaji Haruna Isiaku from Lokoja, Kogi State.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The victim was reportedly abducted on several occasions between December 2023 and January 2025, paying a cumulative ransom of \u20a621 million, \u20a62 million in 2023, \u20a67 million and \u20a65 million in 2024, and \u20a67 million in early 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Makama revealed that the gang contacted the victim again on August 1, demanding an additional \u20a610 million and threatening another abduction.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Acting on police advice, the victim played along. While the gang initially instructed that the ransom be dropped at Obajana in Kogi State, the businessman persuaded them to accept a digital transfer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The suspects then provided a POS account number, which the police traced to Suleiman, resulting in his arrest.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Suleiman has reportedly confessed and is said to have disclosed the identities of other gang members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola &nbsp; The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Police Command has arrested a 40-year-old man, Haruna Suleiman, suspected to be the mastermind behind several high-profile kidnappings and extortion cases, including repeated abductions of a prominent Kogi businessman. &nbsp; According to security analyst Zagazola Makama, Suleiman was apprehended on August 3 at about 7:00 p.m. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":72326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72325","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72327,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72325\/revisions\/72327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}