Three wanted suspects who were connected to a string of high-profile kidnappings, murders, and other violent crimes in Abuja and its surrounding areas have been apprehended in Kaduna, Niger, and Nasarawa.

In a statement on Thursday, Josephine Adeh, the spokesperson for the FCT command, identified the suspects as Ibrahim Abdullahi of Mpape in Abuja, a 28-year-old arms supplier, 30-year-old Sale Usman from Niger, and 27-year-old Ya’u Shittu from Kafanchan LGA in Kaduna.

“On June 13, 17, and 18, 2025, operatives of the command’s Scorpion Squad, led by ACP Victor O. Godfrey, acting on credible digital reconstructive intelligence, successfully tracked and apprehended the suspects in coordinated operations across Kaduna, Niger, and Nasarawa states,” said the police.

The suspects, described as a vicious kidnapping syndicate that had committed violent crimes in Abuja, are on the FCT command’s wanted list, according to the police.

The suspects “voluntarily confessed to their involvement in several heinous acts, including the kidnapping of four men in the Katampe and Shishipe I communities, as well as the abduction and murder of a pastor in Mpape in 2024”.

In addition to admitting to kidnapping a woman for whom a ransom of N10 million was paid, with each gang member receiving N500,000, the police stated that the investigation connected the suspects “to the kidnapping of three children from Ruga Shishipe in Mpape, during which their father was killed while resisting the attackers”.

Mr Abdullahi, one of the suspects, led police operatives to the syndicate’s hideout in Bukuru in Nasarawa on Wednesday to arrest other gang members apart from those already apprehended, the FCT command said.

At the hideout, suspected criminals opened fire on the police. Mr Abdullahi tried to escape during the gunfight but was shot, while the gang members fled.

Efforts are underway to capture the fugitive suspects, according to the police.