A POLICE Divisional Officer has rejected one million naira bribe offered to him by a suspected notorious bandit after his arrest in a hotel in Kaduna Community.
The arrested bandit reportedly offered the bribe out of the ransom recovered from him by the police at a hotel in Tafa community.
According to the Police Command Public Relations Officer, ASP Mansir Hassan, on Thursday, the arrest was made on the 19th of January, 2024.
According to him, the divisional headquarters received credible information regarding the presence of the suspected person st Easyway hotel in Tafa town.
He explained that their Operatives led by the Divisional Police Officer stormed the hotel and arrested a certain 28-year-old Bello Muhammad, a notorious bandit from Zamfara State and recovered the sum of N2,350,000:00, suspected to be proceeds of kidnapping.
He said during the course of the investigation, the suspect admitted to being a kidnapper who operates with his gang around Kagarko forest in Kaduna.
ASP Mansir said the aforementioned sum is the suspect’s own share of a ransom collected, adding that a check of his mobile phone corroborated the suspect’s confession as pictures of him brandishing an AK47 rifle in a forest were retrieved.
“The said suspect Bello Muhammad thus offered a million naira backhander to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to stop him from furthering the investigation, which the Police Officer forthwith rejected. The investigation is still ongoing as the suspect is assisting the Police with vital information,” he said.
The Commissioner of Police Kaduna State Command, CP A.D Ali, while praising the Tafa Division’s Operatives, urged them and others not to dwindle but to increase the tempo until crimes and criminality are reduced minimally.
The CP tasked hoteliers, recreation, and leisure service operators in the State to always scrutinize the identity of their customers to avoid providing criminals with a safe haven.
