Police arrest four suspected rustlers, recovers 176 cows in Nasarawa

The Police Command in Nasarawa State says it has arrested four suspected rustlers, recovered 176 cows and 64 sheep at Bakoro village in Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state.

DSP Kennedy Idirisu, the command’s Public Relations Officer, told newsmen on Wednesday in Lafia.

He said the arrest followed a joint operation by the counter-terrorism unit of the police with the Federal and State Anti-robbery Squad.


Idirisu said the operation was necessitated by increased reports of cattle rustling and armed robbery along Nasarawa-Toto axis of the state.

He said investigations revealed that most of the cows recovered from the suspects were rustled from Zamfara, Sokoto and Niger.

The spokesperson said the leader of the gang, Sani Tawani, had confessed to the crime, saying that he usually stopped at major towns after each operation to sell some of the animals at cheap prices.

“Sani confessed that majority of the cattle were stolen from Zamfara through Birnin-gwari and down to his camp in Bakoro village in Nasarawa.”

He said the police was investigating to ascertain the level of involvement of the suspects in other cases of rustling in parts of Niger and Zamfara.

He also said that the police was on the trail of other suspects, who escaped with bullet wounds during the operation.

“The suspects engaged the police during the operation, but due to superior fire power, the police was able to subdue them and arrest four.

“We also recovered some empty shell of 7.62mm ammunition purely meant for AK 47 and AK 49 riffles,” Idirisu added.

He said that a locally made gun and seven motorcycles were also recovered from the suspects.

Mallam Audu Balingo, owner of some of the cows, who is from Zamfara, said he could only identify five among those recovered.

He said that 50 of his cows were stolen from his base in December 2017.