BORNO POLICE ARREST FIVE OVER KIDNAPPING OF EIGHT-YEAR-OLD GIRL, UNCLE ACCUSED OF MASTERMININDING ABDUCTION, N3M CRYPTO RANSOM
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
The Borno State Police Command has arrested five suspects over the abduction of an eight-year-old girl in Maiduguri, including her 20-year-old uncle who allegedly masterminded the crime and received a ₦3m ransom via cryptocurrency.
The arrests were announced on Thursday in a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Nahum Daso, who said the suspects were apprehended between November 29 and December 4, 2025, following a discreet and intelligence-driven investigation.
The suspects were identified as Mustapha Mohammed (20), Ismail Shuaibu (25), Abdul Mohammed Bulama (23), Amina Ibrahim (19), and Lawan Yusuf Hassan (25).
According to the police, the child was abducted on November 4, 2025, at about 3pm while returning home from school in the Gomari area of Maiduguri. The kidnappers contacted her family and demanded a ₦3m ransom, which was eventually paid in cryptocurrency before she was released on November 7.
Daso said CP Naziru Abdulmajid immediately deployed the Command’s Crack Squad, whose tracking, surveillance, and digital tracing led to the arrest of the five suspects.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim’s uncle, Mustapha Mohammed, orchestrated the kidnapping with Shuaibu and Bulama. The trio intercepted the girl, moved her through several tricycles to evade detection, and took her to a tailor who replaced her school uniform with a plain dress to disguise her identity
They later checked into a hotel along the Pompomari Bypass with the help of 19-year-old Amina Ibrahim, who posed as Shuaibu’s wife and the mother of the child. The police said the girl was drugged and held in the hotel for three days until the ransom was paid.
Further investigation led officers to Lawan Yusuf Hassan of Bulumkutu GSM Village, an alleged IT technician who facilitated and received the ransom through cryptocurrency channels.
Daso said efforts are underway to recover the ransom and identify additional accomplices.
The Commissioner of Police commended the Crack Squad for their swift response and reiterated the Command’s zero tolerance for kidnapping and violent crimes, warning perpetrators to desist or face the full force of the law.
The development comes days after troops of Operation Hadin Kai rescued 12 teenage girls abducted by Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgents in Askira/Uba Local Government Area. The victims, aged 15 to 20, were kidnapped on November 23 while harvesting crops and were freed on November 29 in an intelligence-led operation.
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