Nigeria’s secret police on Wednesday announced the arrest of six persons suspected to be the killers of Maiwada Galadima, a traditional ruler in the northern state of Kaduna.
The six suspects, including a “marked” member of the terror group Boko Haram, were presented to journalists in the state capital.
Operatives of the Department of State Security Services arrested the suspects at different locations, Mahmud Ningi, a state director, told a news conference attended by senior government and security officials.
Galadima, who was the paramount ruler of the Adara Chiefdom together with wife, were abducted while on their way to the palace after an on-the-spot assessment of destruction of lives and property in the wake of an unrest in Kajuru area of the state last month.
The wife was spared but the traditional ruler was killed by his abductors after collecting ransom.
This sparked another bout of crisis which led to the killings of some residents and the subsequent slamming of a 24-hour curfew in the area by the state government to avert further bloodshed.
The director said the suspects demanded a ransom of 100 million naira (about 280,000 U.S. dollars) from the family.
He said that after negotiation and subsequent collection of 6.85 million naira from the monarch’s family, Galadima was killed by the abductors.
Ningi added that though the service tracked the activities of the criminals during the negotiations but could not effect arrest because of the safety of the traditional ruler which they considered “paramount.”
He told reporters that immediately after the traditional ruler’s body was discovered, the service tracked and arrested the six suspects.
