- Safiu Kehinde
A video showing scary moment the suspected armed robbers broke into the building where Arise TV Newscaster, Somtochuwku Madagwu, died has surfaced on online.
As captured in the CCTV footage shared on Instagram in Friday, the robbery gang had stormed the residential apartment armed with guns and sword.
Their arrival had thrown occupants of the building into a state of panic as they could be heard screaming while the armed robbers approached stairways.
NPO Reported that the incident had led to the death of Maduagwu who reportedly jumped out of her apartment.
While the armed robbers also killed the security guard attached to the building, Maduagwu died of the injury sustained from the fall.
Her death had since led to the call for the arrest of the robbery gang.
Meanwhile, the Police yesterday arrested 12 suspected member of the gang.
As confirmed in a statement issued on Friday, the FCT Police Command’s Spokesperson, Josephine Adeh, disclosed that the Commissioner of Police, Ajao S. Adewale, has ordered a Special Investigation Team to embark on a manhunt for the suspects.
The team led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Aliyu Abubakar, and assisted by the Commander, Scorpion Squad, ACP Victor Godfrey, were charged to track down and dismantle the criminal network behind the attack.
The team, in a coordinated operations across the FCT, Nasarawa, and Kaduna States, successfully apprehended 12 suspects comprising of 11 males and one female.
The arrested suspects as listed by Adeh include, Shamsudeen Hassan, Hassan Isah, Abubakar Alkamu (aka Abba), Sani Sirajo (aka Dan Borume)- the gang driver, Mashkur Jamilu (aka Abba), and Suleiman Badamasi (aka Dan Sule), who provided vehicles for operations.
Others include Abdulsalam Saleh (aka Na-Durudu),.Zaharadeen Muhammad (aka Gwaska), Musa Adamu (aka Musa Hassan), Sumayya Mohammed (aka Baby), Isah Abdulrahman (aka Abbati), and Musa Umar (aka Small).
Exhibits recovered from the suspects include one locally fabricated AK-47 rifle, one locally made pistol, one pump-action gun, 36 live ammunition, two live cartridges, four mobile phones, two knives, one cutlass, and one heavy flashlight.
All the suspects hail from Kaduna and Katsina States.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the gang procured their firearms from a yet to be identified supplier in Niger Republic.
They also confessed to participating in other armed robbery operations at Katampe 1, a hotel in Apo, and another in Zuba, all within the FCT.
Further investigations confirmed that the fatal shot which claimed the life of the security guard, Mr. Barnabas Danlami, was fired by one of the suspects, Shamsudeen Hassan.