Two young men have been arrested in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, for alleged shop breaking and phone snatching.
The two offences are typical of young criminal elements known in Adamawa State as Shila Boys.
The Adamawa State Police Command, which said on Tuesday that the arrests resulted from an intensified crackdown on Shilla gangsterism and other criminal activities, explained that operatives attached to the Doubeli Divisional Police Headquarters in Yola North Local Government Area carried out the arrests in separate operations.
The command, in a statement signed by its spokesman, SP Suleiman Nguroje, said that on June 3, 2026, operatives arrested a 22-year-old suspect, Idris Auwal, a resident of Doubeli Culvert in Yola North LGA, in connection with a burglary incident.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect conspired with three accomplices, currently at large, to break into a shop located at Nassarawo Borehole belonging to Abdullahi Sunusi,” Nguroje explained.
He added that the suspects made away with a bag containing cash as well as assorted goods from the shop shelves.
According to the police spokesman, in a separate incident on June 5, 2026, police operatives apprehended another suspected Shilla gang member accused of attacking and robbing residents.
The suspect, reportedly armed with a cutlass, accosted one Abubakar Abdullahi along the Doubeli Bypass and dispossessed him of an Itel mobile phone and the sum of N19,000.
“The victim sustained injuries during the attack but was promptly rescued and given medical attention following swift police intervention,” Nguroje stated.
The police, listing items recovered from the suspects as a cutlass, a knife and the stolen mobile phone, stated that both suspects are currently under investigation, while efforts are ongoing to apprehend other fleeing members of the gang.
