Police on Sunday said the suspected mastermind of the kidnap of board chairman of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has been killed.
UBEC chairman, Muhammed Mahmood, and his daughter were among those kidnapped on April 29 around Katari Village, along the Kaduna-Abuja Highway and later released.
Force spokesman, Frank Mba, said in a statement that the suspect was killed on Saturday during a shootout with operatives attached to “Operation Puff Adder”.
He said: “A kidnapping kingpin and notorious armed robber, who recently masterminded the kidnap of the UBEC Chairman along Abuja- Kaduna road is dead.”
He identified the suspect as Sumaila Sule, alias SHAHO, a native of Rijana village in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
MBA said the suspect who was in his mid-thirties died following multiple bullet wounds he sustained during the shootout.
Policemen were on routine surveillance when they came under attack from a ‘heavily armed criminal gang’ at the outskirts of Rijana village, he said.
The spokesman also said four members of Sule’s gang were arrested during follow-up operations.
He named the suspects as: Musa Hassan, 26; Yau Umar, 25; Umar Musa, 22; and Muhammad Sani, 28 all natives of Rijiana village.
The suspects, he said, have been on police radar for a while.
