Police in Kano have paraded 242 suspects arrested for various crimes.
Police said, twenty-four of the suspects were arrested for alleged armed robbery, 17 for kidnapping, eight for motor vehicle theft, 10 for tricycle snatching, and 17 for stealing motorcycles.
Five suspected rapists, six drug dealers, 16 fraudsters, 67 mobile handsets robbery specialists and 72 thugs, known in local parlance as yan daba, were also paraded.
Also paraded were the firearms which the suspects allegedly used in carrying out the crimes, which included two AK47 rifles, one Beretta pistol, two locally-made pistols and six-locally made guns.
Police Commissioner Habu Sani said the suspects were nabbed after police carried out “intelligence-led operations.”
A statement by police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna said four tricycles, 12 motorcycles, 68 mobile phones and 13 bags with 222 parcels of dried Indian hemp were recovered.
Haruna said the arrests and recoveries were made from September 9 to October, 2020.
“These successes were recorded as a result of the support, encouragement and cooperation of the Inspector General of Police, the government, the people of Kano State and sustained synergy with other sister security agencies,” he said.
One of the paraded suspects, Usman Yahaya, 26, of Kurna Quarters, Ungogo Local Government Area of the state, is a specialist in stealing motorcycles, police said.
During interrogation, Yahaya said he stole 500 motorcycles and was on his 501st operation when he ran out of luck. He was arrested by the police.
During interrogation, he confessed to the crime and revealed he specialised in stealing motorcycles but was caught when his group stole the 501 motorcycle.
Yahaya runs a motorbike stealing syndicate.
One of the syndicate members, 28-year-old Gali Kabiru, of Kurna Asabe Quarters, Kano, went to Jaiz Bank, Kabuga Quarters and allegedly stole a motorcycle belonging to a customer.
The customer was said to have gone into the bank.
It was during investigation that Kabiru led the police to arrest the motorcycle stealing kingpin Yahaya and another member of his syndicate, Umar Abdullahi aged 25 years.
Seven motorcycles were recovered.
Police said they were investigating.
