The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has disclosed that members of the armed robbery gang responsible for the killing of ARISE News anchor, Somtochukwu Maduagwu, procured their weapons from a supplier based in the Niger Republic.
Police spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh, made this known in a statement on Friday while announcing the arrest of 12 suspects connected to the September 29, 2025, armed robbery and murder at Unique Apartments, Katampe Extension, Abuja. Maduagwu and a security guard, Barnabas Danlami, were killed during the incident.
Adeh said preliminary investigations revealed that the gang sourced its weapons — including a locally fabricated AK-47 rifle, a pump-action gun, and a pistol — from an arms dealer operating across the Nigeria–Niger border. She added that all the suspects, who hail from Kaduna and Katsina States, confessed to obtaining their weapons from a yet-to-be-identified supplier in Niger Republic.
The police listed the arrested suspects as Shamsudeen Hassan, Hassan Isah (22), Abubakar Alkamu (27), Sani Sirajo (20), Mashkur Jamilu (28), Suleiman Badamasi (21), Abdulsalam Saleh, Zaharadeen Muhammad (23), Musa Adamu (30), Sumayya Mohammed (27), Isah Abdulrahman (25), and Musa Umar (31).
According to Adeh, the suspects admitted to carrying out previous robberies in Katampe 1, Apo, and Zuba before the deadly attack that claimed the lives of Maduagwu and Danlami. Further investigations also confirmed that one of the suspects, Shamsudeen Hassan, fired the shot that killed the security guard during the attack.
Explaining how the gang was apprehended, Adeh said the Commissioner of Police, CP Ajao Adewale, set up a special investigation team led by DCP Aliyu Abubakar and assisted by ACP Victor Godfrey. The team, leveraging digital intelligence and coordinated operations across the FCT, Nasarawa, and Kaduna States, successfully tracked down and arrested the suspects.
The police urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspicious activities through designated emergency lines.
Nigeria continues to grapple with the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons, much of which are smuggled from neighbouring countries such as Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
The United Nations had, in 2016, raised alarm over the growing spread of illegal weapons in Nigeria, estimating that about 350 million of the 500 million illicit arms circulating in West Africa were concentrated within the country — roughly 70 per cent of the regional total.