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"Edo Will Never Be a Safe Haven for Criminals": Police Arrest Two Suspected Kidnappers, Recover Charms and Live AK‑47 Ammunition in Iyamho Raid
The Edo State Police Command has made a significant breakthrough in its escalating war against kidnapping, arresting two suspects and recovering a disturbing arsenal of weapons and ritual charms in Iyamho, the community that hosts Edo State University. The operation, executed in the early hours of 27 April 2026, was led by officers of the Iyamho Divisional Police Headquarters acting on what Police Public Relations Officer ASP Eno Ikoedem described as "credible intelligence regarding the hideout of a notorious kidnapping syndicate." The two suspects—identified as Sani Kabir (23) and Hamza Nuhu (25)—were taken into custody after a coordinated sting on their hideout, where police also seized two Dane guns, a live round of AK‑47 ammunition, two cutlasses, police headgear, gunpowder, locally manufactured bullets, and a collection of fetish charms. Commissioner of Police Monday Agbonika, reacting to the arrests, directed that the suspects be immediately transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for thorough interrogation and warned that "Edo State will never become a safe haven for criminals."
The recovery of the live AK‑47 round, even in the absence of the rifle itself, is of particular security concern. It suggests the syndicate may have access, or be attempting to gain access, to high‑calibre military‑grade weapons—an escalation that law enforcement agencies across Nigeria's South‑South have been monitoring with growing alarm. The police headgear also raises the disturbing possibility that the suspects may have been impersonating law enforcement officers in the course of their operations, a tactic frequently used by kidnapping gangs to approach unsuspecting victims at checkpoints or in isolated areas. The assortment of charms recovered—a near‑ubiquitous feature in Nigerian kidnap dens—reflects the ritual dimension that kidnappers often rely on for psychological confidence, however ineffective those charms may ultimately prove against determined police action. The Edo State University environment, around which the suspects were allegedly operating, has in recent months experienced mounting anxiety over the security of students and staff; parents and university officials have repeatedly appealed for enhanced patrols and visible police presence. This arrest, while unlikely to immediately quell those fears, represents a tangible demonstration that the command is listening—and acting.
Commissioner Agbonika's Zero‑Tolerance Doctrine in Practice
Since assuming the role of Commissioner of Police for Edo State, Monday Agbonika has pursued an uncompromising approach to violent crime, articulating a doctrine that refuses to separate the rhetoric of law enforcement from its operational delivery. In public statements and operational directives alike, he has consistently maintained that criminals—particularly kidnappers—would find no breathing space in the state. The Iyamho arrests are the latest in a series of high‑profile operations that have seen the command dismantle kidnapping cells, rescue abducted victims along the Benin‑Lagos Expressway, and engage in intense bush‑combing operations in the forests of Edo North. In the case of Kabir and Nuhu, Agbonika's swift order to transfer the suspects to the State CID signals an intent to unravel the network beyond the immediate foot soldiers—to follow the trail of the AK‑47 round to its source, to trace the ownership of the police headgear, and to identify any other cells operating in the university corridor. "We will not relent," Agbonika stated through the command's spokesperson, "until every element threatening the peace of Edo communities is rooted out and brought to justice."
The Broader Context: Kidnapping and the University Corridor
The Iyamho arrests occur against a backdrop of intensifying kidnapping activity along the corridors connecting Benin City to the state's northern senatorial districts. The presence of tertiary institutions—notably Edo State University, but also Auchi Polytechnic and Ambrose Alli University—creates a concentration of potential targets, including staff members, students, and visiting parents, many of whom travel along rural roads that are difficult to secure comprehensively. In recent months, the command has recorded multiple kidnapping incidents along these routes, with victims ranging from university lecturers to commercial bus passengers. The response has involved not merely reactive arrests but a deliberate effort to strengthen intelligence‑gathering, deploy tactical teams to high‑risk areas, and cultivate community sources willing to share information about suspicious activity. The Iyamho raid, predicated on intelligence, is a case in point: it demonstrates a shift toward proactive, intelligence‑led policing that represents, if sustained, the most effective counter‑strategy against the decentralised and adaptive threat that kidnapping networks pose.
A Signal, Not a Solution
The arrests of Sani Kabir and Hamza Nuhu will not, by themselves, end kidnapping in Edo State. But they send a signal—to criminal networks that the police are capable of acting on intelligence, to residents of Iyamho that their fears have been heard, and to the university community that the state has not abandoned them. The items recovered—the guns, the ammunition, the charms—are evidence that will, the police hope, lead to convictions. The test of Agbonika's doctrine will lie not in the number of arrests made in a single operation, but in whether the network from which these two men came is systematically dismantled. For now, the suspects are in custody, the charms are bagged as exhibits, and the Commissioner's words—"Edo will never be a safe haven for criminals"—remain the stated policy of a command that is, slowly and imperfectly, attempting to make good on them.
Stay tuned to Unuevbo TV for more in‑depth reporting on crime and community safety across Edo State.
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