A 53 year old Nigerian journalist working in New York, the United States of America, Abdullahi Shuaibu, has been arrested by the New York Police Department (NYPD) for robbing four Manhattan banks, all during his lunch break.
Abdullahi Shuaibu, who was initially posted to the US by News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), which was his first employer, has already been charged by the NYPD on two counts of robbery and two counts of attempted robbery.
The NYPD’s Major Case Squad arrested Abdullahi Shuaibu, at his office at the Foreign Press Centers across from the United Nations building. He was said to have robbed a HSBC bank at 40th Street and Third Avenue on Monday and then returned to work shortly before he was arrested. They say he’s wanted in at least three other bank robberies.
Police believe that Abdullahi Shuaibu was the man who robbed a Santander Bank on Madison Avenue on February 27, a Bank of America on Third Avenue on March 13, and a Santander Bank on Third Avenue on March 27. In each of the robberies, the suspect passed a note to a clerk demanding money.
The suspect was sacked by NAN in April 2013 following his refusal to resume work in Nigeria at the expiration of duty tour and extended period which he requested to enable him complete an academic programme.
Abdullahi Shuaibu also worked as a communication specialist at the United Nations in Darfur, spending two months there in 2013, according to a U.N. spokesperson. [myad]
