Police raid Abuja’s local sports facility, arresting the proprietor and 307 fans 

On Sunday, police from the FCT command stormed a local sports joint known as Gidan-Dambe in the Dei-Dei district of the FCT’s Bwari district Council, detaining over 300 people, the most of whom were fans. 

City & Crime learned that the facility’s operator, Ali Zuma, kiosk proprietors, and commercial motorists were among those detained during the operation, which occurred between 5 and 6 p.m.

Abubakar Sadiq, a resident, told City & Crime that the incident sprang from a misunderstanding between the facility’s management and a resident over a property issue. 

He stated the police arrived in the area in around ten vehicles and arrested persons both inside and outside the walled site.

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

Another resident, Ahmad Abubakar, stated that he was able to avoid arrest by jumping the facility’s fence and then watching the operation from a distance. 

SP Josephine Adeh, spokeswoman for the FCT Police Command, confirmed the operation in a press statement on Monday afternoon, stating that 307 people were detained as part of the exercise.

 She stated that the FCT police commissioner, Benneth C. Igwe, personally supervised the operation, during which numerous exhibits, including one English handgun with 15 rounds of 9 mm ammunition, were confiscated from Ibrahim Tukur, who claimed to be a DSS personnel. 

Other goods found, according to the statement, were marijuana wraps, illegal narcotics, and other valuables believed to have been taken from the innocent inhabitants.