What my gang did to travelers in Kogi State – Notorious Fulani herdsman

A 25-year old suspected Fulani herdsman, Abubakar Mohammed, has disclosed how himself and his gang members attacked passenger buses along Osara-Lokoja Expressway in Kogi State, under the cover of herding cattle for free range grazing.
He said they kidnap, rob, and rape female passengers for days without fear of police arrest.

Mohammed made this disclosure when he was paraded alongside one of his gang members – 23-year-old Abubakar Bamo – during the weekend by men of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Kogi State Police Command.
He said: “We are cattle rearers but we have robbed several bus passengers along Okene, Osara/Lokoja and collected all their money.
“We kidnapped some of them and held them in the bush, where we raped the female passengers.

“There was a time the police killed a member of our gang, but we re-grouped and started kidnapping anybody we saw in the bush in Itobe and Adogo communities.
“We also raped the female victims working in the farms.”
Mohammed and Bamo, who are being held at the SARS headquarters, also told newsmen that they took special interest in killing policemen on duty and taking away their AK 47 rifles which they used to carry out their operations.

On his part, Kogi Commissioner of Police, Wilson Inalegwu, commended the Commander of SARS, Supol Bimbo Oyewole and his operatives, who stormed the hideout of the Fulani herdsmen at Itobe and Adogo axis of Ajaokuta Local Government Area, Kogi state to nab the suspects.
The police boss said that the Fulani gang had on June 3, 2017 attacked a passenger bus along the Osara-Lokoja and took some of the female passengers to their hideout in the bush, where they raped them and also collected N500,000 as ransom.

According to Inalegwu, the Fulani gang kidnapped and robbed another set of bus passengers along the Kabba-Shoko road. They held the passengers for three days, collected N1 million as ransom and raped the female victims.
Inalegwu further revealed that the Fulani kidnappers and robbers masquerading as herdsmen also abducted a man in Okene. They took the sum of N400,300 from the victim and held him for seven days before he was released.
He said: “In the course of investigation, the SARS operatives arrested 23-year-old Abubakar Bamo and Mohammed Sani, 25, who conspired to abduct one Alhaji Buba at Adogo axis and he paid N1 million ransom after spending several days in the custody of the kidnappers. The gang led by the duo of Bamo and Sani were alleged to have terrorized the entire community of Adogo and Itobe in Ofu Local Government Area, Kogi State.
“SARS operatives recovered police AK 47 rifles and ammunition as well as pump-action guns from them.
“In one of the exchange of gunshots between the police and the Fulani gang, Abubakar Mohammed, escaped to their camp in Obajana with bullet wounds, where a nurse, Taiwo Oladiran, treated him and extracted bullets from his body and was paid N30,000.
“Luck however ran out on her and she was later arrested following a tip off.“
Inalegwu assured that the command would not rest on its oars. Rather it would continue to prosecute the renewed war against kidnappers and armed robbers.
He said after investigations the suspects in custody would be charged to court.
He urged the people of Kogi to provide the police with useful information to enable it combat Fulani kidnappers and robbers more effectively.