Abubakar Usman, a man identified as a leader of a bandit group, was taken into custody within a forest in Delta State. During his initial interrogation, Usman revealed that he and his cohorts were employed by an Alhaji residing in Abuja to herd cattle. The arrest was carried out on Wednesday by the Delta State Police Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Squad alongside the SafeCity Security Service, following a firefight at the suspect’s lair in the Ogwashi-Uku/Adonta Forest.
The authorities launched this operation after the kidnapping of Mrs. Blessing Chiedu, a resident of Umunede Kingdom, who was taken on July 2, 2026, on the Ani-Ifekide Farm Road in Ubulu-Uku. Harrison Gwamnishu, a human rights advocate, stated that the captors had originally sought a N100 million ransom for her release. In a video of the arrest shared online, Usman explained that he moved from his home state of Niger to Delta to join two other gang members. He admitted that the group had previously collected N5 million in ransom money. According to the suspect, they operated using a pump-action rifle and took orders from an Abuja-based patron whose exact location remains unknown to him.
