Operatives of the Scorpion Squad of the Nigeria Police Force, FCT command, have arrested 12 suspects allegedly involved in the armed robbery operation that led to the death of Somtochukwu Christella Maduagwu, a staff of Arise Television and Barnabas Danlami, a security guard at unique apartment Gishiri village, Katampe district on September 29, 2025.
The special squad led by led by ACP Victor Godfrey, acting on actionable digital and reconstructive intelligence provided by Giga Forensics, a subsidiary of EIB STRATOC, also successfully recovered some exhibits.
The arrested suspects included; Shamsudeen Hassan ‘m’ from Malumfashi LGA, Katsina State, Hassan Isah ‘m’, 22 years from Zaria Kaduna State, Abubakar Alkamu a.k.a. abba ‘m’, 27 years from Musawa LGA, Katsina State, Sani Sirajo a.k.a. dan borume ‘m’ 20 years from Malumfashi LGA, Katsina State, Mashkur Jamilu a.k.a. abba ‘m’ 28 years from Igabi LGA, Kaduna State and Suleiman Badamasi a.k.a. dan-sule ‘m’ 21 years from Malumfashi LGA, Katsina State.
Others are Abdul Salam saleh a.k.a. na-durudu ‘m’ from Katsina LGA, Katsina State, Zaharadeen Muhammad a.k.a. Gwaska ‘m’ 23 years from Chikun LGA, Kaduna State, Musa Adamu a.k.a. Musa Hassan ‘m’ 30 years from Malumfashi LGA, Katsina State, Sumayya Mohammed a.k.a. baby ‘m’ 27 years from Saminaka LGA, Kaduna State, Isah Abdulrahman a.k.a. Abbati ‘m’, 25 years from Zaria LGA, Kaduna State and Musa Umar a.k.a. Small ‘m’ 31 years from Maiduguri LGA, Borno State.
The FCT Police command said that shortly after the robbery incident that took place on 29/09/2025 at about 0330hrs at unique apartment, Katampe district, Mabushi in Abuja, which led to the deaths of Somtochukwu Christella Maduagwu and Barnabas Danlami, four of the suspects namely; Shamsudeen Hassan, Alkamu, Sirajo and one other person were arrested through the tracking of phones stollen from the apartment during the robbery using tracking and intercept service provided of the police.
The police said that during interrogation, Shamsudeen Hassan confessed that he shot the security guard when he attempted to prevent them from gaining access to the apartment while Sani Sirajo confessed to have tried to hold Somtochukwu Christella Maduagwu from falling off the three-storey building but was overwhelmed by her weight. The police further said that Shamsudeen confessed that he drove the white honda CR-V jeep out of the apartment after the operation.
It was gathered that the four suspects admitted that they each received ₦200,000 from the proceeds of the crime.
Exhibits recovered from the suspects included; One fabricated ak-47 rifle, 36 rounds of 9mm live ammunition, one locally made pistol, one pump-action gun, two live cartridges, four mobile phones of the victims, two sharp knives, one cutlass and nine torchlights used during the operation.
The police said that in continuation of investigations on Wednesday, October 8, 2025, acting on a tip-off and actionable digital intelligence led to the arrest of the remaining members of the gang, Musa Umar a.k.a. small, Hassan Isah and other accomplices involved in the Gishiri robbery as they were intercepted while en route to an already planned armed robbery operation scheduled to hold at Maitama in the early hours of Thursday’s morning.
The police also said that all suspects have confessed to the crimes while investigation is still going on, adding that pictures of the suspects has been redacted pending the arrest of the remaining fleeing members of Wednesday’s operation.
