Plateau police apprehend three suspects involved in lecturer’s death 

Plateau State Police Command has apprehended three suspects believed to have killed a senior lecturer with the University of Jos and kidnapped his six-year-old daughter.

The command has equally arrested three kidnappers, who shot Rev Canon Bayo James Femourune and two members of his family. Addressing journalists in Jos, yesterday, the State Commissioner of Police, Edward Chuka Egbuka said operatives of DSS in Plateau State were able to track down two other members of the notorious gang of kidnappers, who kidnapped the university don and had earlier escaped gun battle with the Police with bullet wounds.

He added that on interrogation by the DSS operatives, the suspects confessed to being part of the gang that murdered the lecturer and kidnapped his daughter. They took the operatives to their hideouts, where two firearms, AK 47 rifles with two rounds of ammunition and a baretta pistol with seven rounds of ammunition were recovered.

He said: “Interestingly, this baretta pistol was stolen from the late Sergeant Jonathan Danladi of Laranto Division, who had an encounter with this same dreaded gang of kidnappers in the early hours of May 4, 2020 at ECWA base in Jos. The Police Sergeant, in a bid to rescue an 18-year-old female victim, was shot dead and his baretta pistol stolen.

“The same gang killed a DSS personnel on December 30, 2017, along Dong-miango/Rukuba Road in Jos North council. The suspects have confessed to several other kidnapping incidents, armed robberies and killings within Jos metropolis and Bassa council from 2017 to date. The Command in collaboration with other security agencies have launched an aggressive manhunt for other members of the gang still at large.” 

Egbuka disclosed that the Command also arrested two suspected armed robbers, who invaded the residence of one Rev Canon Bayo James Femourune of Agape Mission, Messiah College, Gana Ropp Village in Barkin-Ladi LGA, adding that in their bid to rob the victim and his family, they shot him on the head and leg, the wife on her back, their son on the leg and a guest of the family was also shot on his leg.