Alhaji Abdullahi Alasan Beli went to bed at home in Beli Village on September 1, 2026. Armed men came for him that day, and for the next 68 days his family and his party did not know whether he would ever return.
Beli is the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rogo Local Government Area of Kano State. The men who took him did not keep him in one place. By his own account, they moved him from hideout to hideout, through Danja, Ikara and Giwa in Kaduna State, and into parts of Zamfara State. Police say the gang’s driver carried victims between hiding places across Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara.
His luck turned in October. Police say that on October 18, following an intelligence-led investigation, detectives arrested a 25-year-old man named Shu’aibu Sulaiman, known as “Lemu,” at Kwanar Dangora in Kiru Local Government Area. Police spokesman SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa says Lemu is the main suspect and that he confessed under questioning. What he told officers, according to police, opened the way to more arrests and finally to Beli’s rescue.
A second suspect, Mansur Usman of Nassarawa Local Government Area, was also picked up. Police describe him as the gang’s driver, the man who allegedly took the kidnappers to Beli’s village and moved victims between hideouts. Officers say they recovered an AK-47 rifle and 18 rounds of live ammunition. Both men are in custody, and police say discreet investigations continue.
Beli came out unhurt, according to the Kano State Police Command, whose Anti-Kidnapping Squad carried out the operation. Police say the arrests have dismantled a syndicate that terrorised Kano and neighbouring states.
On Sunday night, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf received Beli and the Commissioner of Police, CP Adamu Bakori, at Government House in Kano. The governor praised the officers behind the rescue, including CSP Aliyu Muhammad Auwal, CSP Ado Muhammad Audi and Kiyawa. He then ordered the state Commissioner for Health to make sure Beli gets full medical care and counselling, all paid for by the state government.
The police commissioner briefed the governor on how the operation unfolded, saying it relied on tactical security measures that led to Beli’s freedom. He promised that the command would push harder against kidnapping and other crimes.
For one family, the long wait is over. But the case shows how a prominent man can be taken from his own home and passed through several states for more than two months. The suspects have confessed to police, but they have not been tried, and the allegations against them remain unproven until a court rules.