Operatives of the Borno State Police Command have rescued a seven-year-old boy abducted in Maiduguri and arrested five persons allegedly linked to the incident.
The command’s Public Relations Officer, ASP Nahum Kenneth Daso, made this known in a statement, adding that part of the ransom paid by the victim’s family had been recovered.
He explained that the breakthrough followed a coordinated operation by detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Maiduguri.
Daso said the case was reported on March 24, 2026, when a resident of the Chad Basin area notified the police that his son had been taken away by unidentified individuals the previous day at about 6:40 p.m.
According to him, preliminary investigations showed that the abductors later reached out to the boy’s mother through a private number, initially demanding N10m before negotiations reduced the amount to N8m.
The family, however, paid N1.5m into a Point of Sale account supplied by the suspects.
He noted that investigators employed digital tracking methods to trace the account to a POS operator, Musa Mohammed Bashir, whose arrest paved the way for the capture of four additional suspects.
The other suspects were identified as Ali Adam, also known as Abba, 24; Abubakar Sadiq, 29; Abba Goni Abba, 18; and Mohammed Musa, also called Ale Mamman, 18.
The police spokesperson added that the child was found unharmed, taken for medical examination, and subsequently reunited with his family.
He further disclosed that the N1.5m ransom earlier paid was recovered during the operation.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Naziru Abdulmajid, praised the officers for their swift action and urged members of the public to remain alert and support security agencies with credible information.
