ABUJA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria has nabbed 40 notorious highway kidnappers operating near the nation's capital Abuja.
Local police, while parading the suspects on Thursday, said they were nabbed after a thorough investigation on the location of their camps.
Some victims were also rescued during the police raid, said Moshood Jimoh, the main spokesman of the Nigerian police.
Most of the suspects were arrested during the kidnapping act, according to Jimoh.
The suspects, who belonged to different gangs, had confessed to committing the crime. Even, some victims had already identified them as their abductors.
The arrested kidnappers operated mainly on the Kaduna-Abuja highway.
Many local and foreign nationals had been kidnapped on this highway in recent times.
Late May, a member of the Nigerian parliament was kidnapped while traveling that route.
The suspects would be arraigned in court on completion of the investigation by the police, Jimoh told Xinhua.
The Nigerian police had on July 25 begun 'Operation Absolute Sanity' on the highway linking the northwestern city of Kaduna to Abuja.
Barely a week after the police operation began in the axis, 31 kidnap suspects were arrested, and their camps destroyed.
Abduction is common in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. Most foreigners and citizens seized by gunmen in the country were usually released unharmed after paying a ransom.
