Three female street vendors were arrested for allegedly serving as informants for bandits in Dogon-Daji village, within the Kagarko government area of Kaduna State.
The suspects, who sold honey, were taken into custody on Thursday following a raid by the Nigerian Army in several parts of the neighborhood. This operation was based on intelligence from a local informant detained two weeks prior.
A community official, speaking to Daily Trust, confirmed the detention: “It is true that troops last week detained three women in the Dogon-Daji area. It astounded me that these women, selling honey by the side of the road, could possibly be bandit informants.”
In a related incident in May, soldiers from the 1 Division of the Nigerian Army and Operation Whirl Punch killed six bandits and detained three suspected informants in Giwa Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna.
Samuel Aruwan, the Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, stated that the troops acted on reliable intelligence to neutralize the bandits. “The troops set up an initial position at Sabon Sara village, where insurgents had abandoned a herd of rustled cattle as they hastily escaped,” Aruwan noted. “The troops then sighted insurgents at the market square of Galadimawa. A swift exchange of fire resulted in six insurgents being neutralized. A further search of the market area led to the arrest of three suspected collaborators and informants believed to have been offering logistic assistance to the criminal elements.”
During the operation, four cell phones and two motorbikes were seized.
The governor of Kaduna, Uba Sani, praised the military’s efforts and called for a comprehensive investigation to identify other accomplices.
Daily Trust
