The Police in Benue State on Wednesday paraded a dismissed Army Sergeant alongside another suspect for alleged armed robbery and kidnapping.
While parading the suspects at the Police headquarters in Makurdi, State Commissioner of Police, CP. Omololu Bishi, said that the command under his watch would not relent in the fight to rid the state of criminals.
He said the dismissed soldier, Terngu Ackaa and his accomplice, Msugh Ako alias MC Dave were arrested following a tip off that they were planning to kidnap two persons in Gboko who are related to an American-based surveyor.
Bishi noted that the gang led by Ackaa had previously kidnapped a lady and collected N11 million ransom from her family, stressing that the police deployed necessary intelligence which led to his arrest and that of one of his accomplice while the others are still being trailed.
The police commissioner said that the dismissed soldier formed the gang of the kidnappers/armed robbers who terrorize Gboko and Kastina-Ala areas of the state, adding that Ackaa’s main role was to identify those people who have money so that his ‘boys’ could kidnap them.
But, in an interview with newsmen, the suspect who admitted he was dismissed from the Nigerian Army, denied being a criminal as he alleged that he was set up by those he never mentioned.
“Only God will vindicate me. I have nothing to say more than that,” Ackaa said tearfully.
Meanwhile, the suspects’ victim, a lady who spoke from the hospital bed explained that she was at her shop when those three men (kidnappers) appeared and forcefully took her away in a car while they blindfolded her to an unknown destination.
The lady who refused to mention her name for fear of future attack said she only regained her freedom after her husband paid a certain amount of money as ransom for her release.
The suspects, Terngu and Ako during the parade by CP, Bishi at police headquarters in Makurdi
