Police Confirms Killing Of Car Snatching Syndicate Leader In Zamfara

The Zamfara State Police Command has disclosed Thursday that a fake pastor, Mohammed Dahiru popularly known as pastor Emeka, a notorious leader of a car snatching and rape syndicate, has finally been killed as he was trying to escape from police custody.

According to the police spokesman, SP Mohammed Shehu, the fake pastor was being taken to a correctional centre in a police van along with members of his gang, but were shot as they allegedly jumped out of the vehicle and were running away in the bid to escape, saying that the police escort opened fire and killed him immediately .

According to him, the incident took place on Wednesday night on the Unguwar-Gwaza road near the police headquarters, where Dahiru and his gang members had been paraded before newsmen by the state Commissioner of Police, Usman Nagoggo.

Due to the silence of the state police command on the sudden death of the most suspected criminal in the state, efforts by newsmen in Gusau to confirm where he was buried proved abortive.

It would be recalled that Dahiru was serving a jail term for armed robbery and rape offences but was given amnesty by Governor Muhammed Matawalle under an amnesty programme due to the Peace accord and reconciliation process in the state.

The State Commissioner of Police, Nagogo, had on Wednesday paraded Dahiru along with other 14 armed bandits at the police headquarters in Gusau.

Investigation by revealed that Dahiru was wrongly released from prison under the amnesty programme as he was not among the Fulani bandits, but was actually serving a jail term for car snatching and rape.

Nagogo described Dahiru as a notorious car snatcher and rapist, who had been terrorising the people of the state alongside four others, who were also arrested by the personnel of the Operation Puff Adder.

The state police boss said that apart from snatching vehicles, Dahiru and his gang members had raped several women in the state in presence of their family members.