Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have arrested two high-profile suspected kidnap kingpins as they made to depart Nigeria for Saudi Arabia to observe the holy pilgrimage.
Security sources disclosed that the suspected kidnappers had been on the DSS radar for over a year, and the screening at Hajj camps in different parts of the country offered the operatives the opportunity to arrest them.
According to the sources, one of the suspects Yahaya Yakubu, who lives in Paikon – Kore village in Gwagwalada area council of the Federal Capital Territory was nabbed at the Abuja Hajj camp, while the second suspect from Zamfara state, Sani Aliyu Galadi, also known as Mai Boxer, was arrested at the Sokoto Hajj camp during the screening of intending pilgrims.
According to a source, Yakubu presented his passport alongside other Muslim travellers from Abuja who were on their way to observe this year’s hajj.
“It was this afternoon during the screening at the hajj camp in airport when the SSS operatives apprehended him and whisked him away,” he said.
An official at the Muslim pilgrims welfare board, who didn’t want his name mentioned, also confirmed the arrest of the suspect.
The source added that Aliyu has been flown from Sokoto to the SSS headquarters in Abuja, and both suspects are currently detained there while investigation continues.
It could be recalled that the DSS had in 2024 arrested one Abubakar Aliyu, a suspected bandit and kidnapper terrorising Zamfara State and its environ in similar circumstances.
