Three individuals have been taken into custody by the Niger State Police Command for kidnapping and extorting students in Lapai while posing as officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
After police officers followed their car, a Toyota Corolla with registration number ABJ 245 CU, to Suleja Road, Kwakuti apprehended the suspects on May 13, 2025: Emmanuel Linus, 30, of Deidei, Abuja; Hyelda Aliyu, 28 of Nyanya, Abuja; and Abduljallid Tanko, 33, of Karo, Abuja.
SP Wasiu Abiodun, the Police Public Relations Officer, claims that the suspects utilised fictitious EFCC ID cards with the identical identity number (1069) that were created at a store in Nyanya, Abuja.
He explained that the suspects entered a student’s room with electric tasers held as guns, collected five phones, and abducted two persons.
“The suspects demanded N10 million from the student’s family, later negotiating to N500,000, before they were arrested,” the state command’s PRO revealed.
The police claimed that during questioning, the suspects admitted that they were invited by their informants, Mohammed Hassan and Hamisu Adamu, both of Angwan-Hausa via Lapai, who gave them information about the pupils.
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The two informant collaborators were also taken into custody, according to Abiodun.
“The informants gave Emmanuel Linus information about the students, having known each other in Paiko. Emmanuel was identified as a dismissed soldier with criminal records and an ex-convict in the past two years.”
All five suspects, including the two informants, are currently under further investigation at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) and will be charged to court for prosecution immediately after the investigation.
