By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
The Nigeria Police Force has arraigned 11 suspects linked to the murder of Arise Television news anchor, Somtochukwu ‘Sommie’ Maduagwu, and a security guard, Barnabas Danlami, before a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) court.
According to a statement by the FCT Police Command, the suspects were arraigned on Wednesday, January 21, on a nine-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy, armed robbery and murder.
Those arraigned included Shamsu Hassan, Sani Sirajo, Hassan Isah, Abubakar Alkamu, Abdulsalam Saleh, Suleiman Badamasi, Zaharadeen Mohammed, Musa Umar (aka “Small”), Mashkur Jamil, Suleiman Sani, and Abubakar Usman.
The police command said: “The suspects were arraigned on a nine-count charge, including criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, and murder.”
The matter has been adjourned till February 2026 for further proceedings.
The 29-year-old Sommie, a reporter and producer with Arise News Television, was killed alongside a security guard, Danlami, during an armed robbery attack at her residence in the Katampe Extension axis of Abuja, in the early hours of Monday, September 29, 2025.
The armed robbers were said to have stormed the three-storey apartment complex around 3:30 a.m., moving from flat to flat and dispossessing residents of their belongings.
At the time, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Ajao Adewale, said, “Policemen moved to the scene and found her lying unconscious. She was immediately taken to Maitama General Hospital, where doctors tried to resuscitate her using CPR, but sadly, she could not make it.”
Adewale had condemned the killing as “cruel and senseless,” stressing that such violence “has no place in a sane society.”
The command’s spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh, had earlier revealed that preliminary investigations showed the syndicate procured its firearms from an arms dealer operating across the Nigeria–Niger border.
Items recovered from the suspects include a fabricated AK-47 rifle, 36 rounds of live ammunition, a locally made pistol, a pump-action gun, two cartridges, four mobile phones belonging to the victims, knives, a cutlass, and nine torchlights.
The suspects also confessed to participating in other armed robbery operations at Katampe 1, a hotel in Apo, and another in Zuba, all within the FCT.
