Police arrest suspected killers of Catholic seminarian, Nnadi Michael

Police have arrested suspected killers of Nnadi Michael, a seminarian of the Catholic Good Shepherd Major Seminary at Gonin Gora, Kakau in Chikun Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State.

This was announced by police spokesman, DCP Frank Mba, in a statement on Sunday.

According to Mba, the suspects were a deadly criminal gang and were supposedly responsible for the kidnap and murder of Nnadi Michael.

The seminarian was killed on January 9, 2020, after the criminal gang stormed the Catholic Seminary and kidnapped four seminarians.

They murdered Nnadi Michael in cold blood, dumped his remains in the bush and released the remaining three on January 31, 2020, after obtaining a ransom.

The statement by Mba listed the suspects as Tukur Usman ‘m’ aged 37, father of 7; Shehu Bello ‘m’ aged 40, father of 5 and Mustapha Mohammed ‘m’ aged 30, father of 1, all of Igabi LGA of Kaduna State.

“They were arrested after several months of intensive and extensive intelligence-led operations by crack detectives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

“Discreet investigations so far reveal that the arrested suspects are part of a 19-man gang that also carried out the kidnap of Dr Phillip Ataga’s wife and two daughters on January 24, 2020 at Juji Community in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State.

“Mrs Ataga was killed by the gang following her heroic resistance to the despicable and inhuman attempt by the leader of the gang to rape her. The suspects after killing her released the daughters and corpse of the slain woman to the family after collecting ransom.

“Further investigations reveal that the same criminal gang is responsible for the kidnap of six students and two teachers of Engravers College, Chikun LGA, Kaduna, from their school premises on October 3, 2019.

“The suspects, known to belong to a hybrid terrorist criminal network causing untold havoc in North-Central, Nigeria, have confessed to several other random operations along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway where they kidnapped, killed and robbed motorists, collecting ransom and valuables running into millions of naira,” the statement read.

Mba quoted the Inspector General of Police of reiterating that the force would remain unrelenting in ensuring that crimes across the country were reduced to the barest minimum and also assuring that the force would not rest until the other members of the gang also responsible for the above crimes, but currently on the run, are apprehended and brought to book.