Officers of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, have arrested one of the suspected assailants of Apostle Johnson Suleman, a Christian cleric.
Recall that Suleiman’s convoy had been attacked by gunmen along Benin-Auchi Road, Edo State, on October 21, 2022. Six of his aides were killed in the attack.
One of the suspects, Yusuf Ismail Isa, was on Thursday, July 13 paraded at the Force Headquarters in FCT Abuja, together with 19 other suspects who had been accused of various offences varying from murder to kidnapping to armed robbery.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, who had paraded the suspects to news men had revealed that the Intelligence Response Team, IRT, had so far, apprehended 548 armed robbery suspects, 246 kidnap suspects, 365 murder suspects, 237 rape suspects and had successfully rescued 113 victims.
Adejobi had meanwhile, disclosed that Isah was suspected to have first pulled the trigger on the convoy of the cleric. In addition to this, Adejobi remarked that some of the rifles found in the suspect’s possession were rifles looted from the three police officers who were killed during the October 21, 2022 attack.
It was also reported that the gang specialised in kidnapping for ransom and had carried out at least four kidnap operations between 2021 and 2023, before they were caught.
Two members of the seven-man gang had reportedly been gunned down in separate encounters with the police.
As at the time of filing this report, Apostle Suleman has yet to make any comments this update.
