Yobe State Police Command said it has arrested four suspected criminals for committing various offences in different parts of the state.
The Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Dungus Abdulkarim, stated this in a statement released on Saturday, indicating that among the suspects was a serial rapist.
According to the statement, the 19-year-old suspected serial rapist, Dahiru Ali, specialised in luring his victims with candies.
“The Potiskum Divisional Police Headquarters arrested Dahiru Ali, 19, of Hayin Kwari for the alleged defilement of a three-year-old girl in the Mutawassada area of Potiskum.
“Further investigation revealed that the suspect had earlier committed a similar offence against another three-year-old girl in the same neighbourhood but in a different house.
“The suspect, who worked as a domestic help, lured the children to a secluded location with sweets and milk, where he molested them. He has confessed to the crime, and investigation is ongoing,” the statement said.
In a separate operation, the Command added that following a distress call from a farmer, operatives of A Division Police Headquarters, Damaturu, apprehended Ibrahim Alhaji Ahmadu, 24, of Dusuwa Village, Kalallawa area of Damaturu, for trespassing on the farmer’s land.
It said after being challenged for the trespass, the herder allegedly threatened the farmer with a gun.
“The suspect was arrested through a well-coordinated sting operation, and a shotgun with live ammunition was recovered from him,” the Police Command noted.
The Command also disclosed that two other suspects were in custody for attacking its operatives in Nguru while on duty, describing it as an attack on constituted authority.
In the statement, the Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Emmanuel Ado, condemned the unprovoked attack on police operatives, the illegal possession of firearms, and the heinous acts of child defilement.
He reiterated the Command’s zero-tolerance stance on criminality and warned perpetrators to desist or face decisive action, while calling on parents and guardians to exercise closer monitoring of their children to protect them from predators.
Police arrest suspected serial rapist, armed herder