By Abdullahi Yunusa
The Federal Capital Territory police command yesterday paraded 25 robbery suspects for various criminal activities committed in the last one month, in some parts of the territory.
Also paraded by the command, was a 45-year-old health personnel, Yakubu Mohammed, who has duped several unsuspecting members of the public of money running into N45 million, under the guise that he is a colonel in the Nigerian army.
Addressing newsmen while parading the suspects, Commissioner of Police, FCT, Mr Haruna John, said the suspects who were arrested in different parts of Abuja, included eight car snatching syndicates, 10 suspected students' cultists from the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa and others arrested for various criminal activities.
Mr John who attributed the arrests to the pragmatic patrol activities of his men and the cooperation of some Abuja residents who supplied them with information, said most of the suspects confessed that they operate based on information from their victims' relations.
As for the fake military colonel arrested, the police boss said he was arrested following complaints from some of his victims to the police on how they were duped by Yakubu Mohammed with a promise to link them with prominent personalities in the country.
According to the CP, investigations revealed that the suspect, who claimed he was a military colonel in the Nigerian army, was a junior officer, who was dismissed from the force over alleged criminal activities.
Responding to questions from newsmen, the suspect, Yakubu Mohammed, who also claimed he is a medical doctor, said he voluntarily resigned from the Nigerian army and was not sacked as alleged by some people.
His words, "I was never sacked from the Nigerian army, I voluntarily left the force in 2004, so as to continue with my medical practice."
On his resolve to disguise as a military colonel, Mohammed said, he did that to gain favour from some highly placed individuals and to others who approach him for assistance.
As for the 10 suspected cultists paraded, the police boss said, they were arrested after a failed attempt to kill a staff of a first generation bank, who failed to have provided an unspecified sum of money the CP demanded for.
A total of 29 stolen vehicles, he said, were recovered in the last one month by his men at some checkpoints mounted in some strategic locations within the FCT.
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