Police parade 23 hoodlums in connection with burning LG Secretariat

Shawulu Ebenezer Danmamman, the Commissioner of Police of Niger State, has paraded 23 hoodlums accused of vandalising the Tafa Local Government Secretariat during the state's ongoing hunger and hardship protest.

Parading the miscreants in Minna, CP Danmamman stated the hoodlums destroyed and set fire to the Secretariat, torched two cars and vandalized two more during the statewide demonstration that began on August 1, 2024.

He explained that they also robbed office items such as computers, filing cabinets, ceiling fans, office chairs, television sets, and office burglaries.

He stated: “Some miscreants of Tafa area of Kagarko LGA of Kaduna State, and that of Sabon-Wuse Tafa and Hayin-Dikko Gurara area of Niger State mobilised and stormed Tafa LGA Secretariat of Niger State located along Abuja, Kaduna expressway, Sabon-Wuse, Niger State.

“The police and other security agencies responded to the scene and a total of 23 suspects were arrested with different dangerous weapons, while others were dispersed from the scene and most of the looted items were recovered mostly from Kagarko in Kaduna State."

The suspects arrested are identified as:

-Musa Umar, 24

-Aliyu Ibrahim, 13

-Shamsudeen Abdullahi, 25

-Auwal Sanusi, 30

-Isiyaku Sanusi, 10

-Ahmed Mukhtar, 20

-Ashiru Abdullahi aka Yellow, 10,

all of Tafa Kaduna State.

Others are:

Justice Danjuma, 19

-Ismaila Aliyu, 26

-Aliyu Betara, 24

Musa Sani, 32

-Yasir Ibrahim, 13

-Abdullahi Yusuf 26

-Bakir Hussain, 15

-Ahmad Jibrin, 1

-Abubakar Salisu, 18

-Yusufu Tijani, 28

-Lawal Abdullahi, 35

-Idris Sani aged 21,

-Ibrahim Haruna 35

all of Sabon-Wuse Tafa Niger State.

-Ibrahim Nuhu, 18

-Abdulrahman Abubakar, 18 both of Hayin-Dikko, in Gurara, Niger State.

-Saifullahi Usman, 24, hails from Komboso in Kano.

Wooden benches and office chairs, a car side mirror, extension cable, reflective jackets, ceiling fans, table calculators, laptops, generators, ceiling sheets, and office televisions are among the items found and recovered from the suspects.

The Commissioner of Police went on to say that all suspects were moved to SCID Minna for additional investigation, and the materials were restored to the LG Secretariat in Tafa.

He promised that as soon as the current inquiry is over, they will be charged and put on trial.

In the same vein, Rivers State Police Command disclosed the arrest of three protesters for stealing Point Of Sale, POS, machines and windshield wipers of vehicles.

Commissioner for Police, Olatunji Disu, made the disclosure on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, that he carried an on-the-spot assessment of the protest in various parts of the state and expressed dismay that miscreants had hijacked the protest.

He further said the organisers of the genuine protest had lost control of the crowd but warned that the police would not sit idly and allow hoodlums to terrorise the state.

CP Disu, said: “I give you my word, I’m going to find out what really happened here. But, I’m aware that hoodlums have hijacked this protest from them.

“They have a lot of people moving around with them harassing members of the public. About one hour ago, we just arrested three people who went around stealing POS among the protesters.

“We have thugs, we have people who have been stealing wipers from people’s vehicles. They’ve been trying to burn tyres everywhere and policemen have been going immediately to extinguish them.

“So, these are not protesters, thugs are among them. So if thugs are here maybe they came with them or something like that. But I give my word, I’m going to investigate and I’ll give you feedback about what I find out.”