Police raid Abuja local sport facility, arrest owner, 307 fans

Police from the FCT command, Sunday, raided a local sport joint, popularly known as Gidan-Dambe, located in Dei-Dei area, in Bwari Area Council of the FCT, arresting over 300 persons, mostly fans.  City & Crime learnt that operator of the facility, Ali Zuma, kiosk owners, as well as commercial motorists were among the arrested people […]

Police from the FCT command, Sunday, raided a local sport joint, popularly known as Gidan-Dambe, located in Dei-Dei area, in Bwari Area Council of the FCT, arresting over 300 persons, mostly fans. 

City & Crime learnt that operator of the facility, Ali Zuma, kiosk owners, as well as commercial motorists were among the arrested people during the operation, said to have taken place between 5 and 6 pm of the day.

A resident, Abubakar Sadiq, told City & Crime that the incident came after a misunderstanding between the operator of the facility and a resident over a land dispute. 

He said the police arrived in the area in about 10 trucks and arrested people from the fenced facility as well as those from outside the fence.

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“They also confiscated a number of commercial motorcycles and took them into the trucks,” Sadiq said. 

Another resident, Ahmad Abubakar, noted that he was able to escape the arrest after he jumped the fence of the facility and later watched the operation from a far. 

In a press release on Monday afternoon, the FCT Police Command’s spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh, confirmed the operation, saying 307 persons were arrested in the exercise.

 She said the FCT police commissioner, Benneth C. Igwe, personally led the operation, where various exhibits, including one English pistol with 15 rounds of 9 mm ammunition, were recovered from one Ibrahim Tukur, who had claimed to be a DSS personnel. 

Other items recovered, according to the statement, included wraps of marijuana, illicit substances and some valuables, suspected to have been stolen from the innocent residents.