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Thursday, July 16, 2026

Police arrest suspect impersonating Boko Haram bandits to extort Yobe farmers

Mr Abdulkarim said efforts were ongoing to arrest the fleeing suspects and recover additional exhibits.

• July 16, 2026

The Yobe State police command has arrested a suspected notorious criminal and recovered a wooden makeshift gun allegedly used in extortion and other organised crimes in the state.

According to a statement on Thursday by the command’s spokesperson, Dungus Abdulkarim, the operation was carried out on 15 July 2026 at about 3:00 p.m.

“Operatives of the Command’s Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU), acting on credible intelligence, arrested one Kollo Kashim, 19 years old, of Sabon Garin Guba, Bursari Local Government Area,” he said.

Mr Abdulkarim said preliminary investigations showed that the suspect, alongside Modu Bayama and Ba’ani Mallah, who is at large, conspired to terrorise herders by posing as Boko Haram terrorists.

According to him, the suspects armed themselves with a wooden makeshift gun, carried a paper bearing Arabic inscriptions, and demanded illegal levies from herders while pretending to be insurgents.

He said the suspects extorted ₦253,000 from four victims.

Police recovered a wooden makeshift gun, a paper containing Arabic inscriptions, and ₦36,000, believed to be part of the proceeds of the crime.

Mr Abdulkarim said efforts were ongoing to arrest the fleeing suspects and recover additional exhibits.

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