Soldiers have arrested a woman and a pickup van driver who were about to allegedly deliver some logistics to bandits at their hideout in Kurutu Forest in Kachia LGA of Kaduna State.
A community leader from the area who confirmed the arrest to our reporter over the phone on Monday, said they were apprehended at Bishini junction around 4:23am on Monday.
He said the woman, who was a charcoal dealer, was conveying cartons of cough syrup, packets of cigarettes, Indian hemp, bag of rice, 22 bags of pure water sachets, one jerry can of palm oil and a carton of Maggi, which he said were concealed in five sacks and covered with trampoline.
He said the soldiers arrested the suspect alongside the driver after receiving intelligence information.
A security source, who preferred anonymity, also confirmed the arrest of a woman and driver, saying the woman had confessed to the soldiers that she was sent on an errand by bandits to purchase the items and deliver them at their den.
He said soldiers became suspicious when the pickup van was flagged down at the army checkpoint, and that the woman claimed that the items belonged to timber operators working for her in the forest.
“It was after soldiers searched the pickup and discovered the items, including Indian hemp and cough syrups, that she confessed that she was sent on errand by bandits,” he said.
The spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, ASP Hassan Mansur, was yet to confirm the arrest at the time of filing the report.
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