Police authorities, on Thursday arrested a 32-year-old man, Yusuf Ismael Isah from Okene, Kogi State, for attacking the convoy of Apostle Johnson Suleman.
Recall that the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Suleman, was attacked on 21 October 2022 on Benin-Auchi Road, inwhich six people, including three policemen were killed.
Following investigations by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Isah a plumber, at Agbaraoluwa Phase 2 Ijoka, Akure, Ondo State was arrested with five Ak47 rifles, two K2 assault rifles, 180 live ammunition and four suspected IEDs all found in his apartment.
Isah, in an interview with journalists admitted that the instruction given by their leader (still at large) was to assassinate Apostle Suleman but he was lucky to have escaped.
Adding that him and his gang specialise in kidnapping for ransom also, confessed that the gang was responsible for the kidnap of a popular oil dealer at Jetu, Auchi in 2022, where they obtained a ransom of about N70 million from his family.
He said, “The attack on him (Suleman) was to assassinate him. I was not part of the discussion; Ilayasu and Labisca were the ones involved in the discussion.
“We attacked him with five AK 47 rifles. Labisca trailed him from where he was coming from to the point where we attacked him.”
The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi said: “Following an intensive investigation into the fatal attack on the convoy of Apostle Johnson Suleman along Benin-Auchi Road wherein six people, including three police personnel, were gruesomely murdered, operatives of FIB-IRT on the trail of the assailants apprehended one Yusuf Isah, a native of Okene, Kogi State and a plumber, at Agbaraoluwa Phase 2 Ijoka, Akure, Ondo State and recovered five AK 47 rifles, two K2 assault rifles, 180 live ammunition and four suspected IEDs found in his apartment.
“The suspect confessed that he joined the vicious gang in 2021 after he was freed from Olokuta Correctional Centre where he was on remand since 2019 for alleged involvement in armed robbery.
“The group specialises in kidnapping for ransom and has carried out about four kidnapping operations between 2021 and 2023, including the attack on the convoy of the cleric before the gang was eventually busted by the police.
The suspect confessed that the gang was responsible for the kidnap of a popular oil dealer at Jetu, Auchi in 2022, where they obtained a ransom of about N70m before his release. The gang equally carried out the kidnapping of a businessman along the Benin-Agbor Expressway in 2022 and collected N20m as ransom from the victim’s family.”
Also, Emu Chidiebere, 34, Samuel Balogun, 22, Babatunde Femi, 30, and Nneka Opara, 32, who were arrested for kidnapping.
“Chidiebere, the principal suspect, was said to have lured a Swiss national to Nigeria, posing as an agent who facilitated Gold transactions.
“The suspects held the victim hostage in the apartment from May 30, 2023, to June 2, 2023.
“The suspects took pictures of the victim and forwarded the pictures and threatening messages to the girlfriend of the victim in Zurich, who eventually sent them $2000 via Western Union on June 1, 2023. Upon receipt of the report, operatives of FIB-IRT were deployed on the case and they successfully apprehended the suspects.”
Adejobi added that the force, in the last two months, arrested 548 armed robbery suspects, 242 kidnapping suspects, 365 murder/homicide suspects and about 237 suspects for rape/defilement.
