The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested three more suspects in connection with the kidnapping of a university lecturer in Nasarawa State, bringing the total number of people now in custody over the case to five. The development marks a widening of the investigation into the high-profile abduction.
The victim is Professor Samuel Okunsebor, a lecturer at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, where he serves as Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture. He was seized by gunmen at Mile Uku, a boundary community between the Lafia and Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Areas.
Security operatives rescued the university don two days after he was taken. At the time of the rescue, the DSS had already arrested two suspects in connection with the incident, one of them a woman.
The three additional suspects were tracked down and arrested at a location along the Lafia to Makurdi highway. Their capture is what has now raised the number of people held over the kidnapping to five.
According to the security source, the newly arrested suspects were identified as 25-year-old Yakubu Abubakar, also known as Black or Starboy, who is said to be from the Doemak tribe in Plateau State.
The other two suspects were named as 37-year-old Usman Abubakar Mairiga and 27-year-old Sale Babauro Abubakar. All three were arrested together during the operation along the highway.
The source added that the three suspects are currently being held in the custody of the DSS State Command for further investigation. The detention is being carried out following a valid detention warrant obtained from a magistrate court.