A 53-year-old Nigerian, Abdullahi Shuaibu, has been arrested by the New York Police for robbing four banks in Manhattan, New York.
Shuaibu who worked at the UN headquarters was said to have carried out the robberies during his lunch hours over a two-month period, police said.
All four banks were he operated are reported to be within walking distance of his place of work on First Avenue near E. 42nd Street.
The police were led to the arrest of Shuaibu after a retired police officer who also works in the same UN building recognized him from images released from surveillance cameras by the police.
Shuaibu’s first robbery was carried out on February 27 at the Santander Bank on Madison Avenue near E. 43rd Street. He threatened the teller that he was carrying a gun, which made the teller to give him some money.
He carried out two more robberies in March, first at the Bank of America on Third Avenue near E. 47th Street and at the Santander Bank on Third Avenue on 63rd Street, both on March 13 and 27 respectively.
Shuaibu’s fourth robbery was at the HSBC bank on Third Avenue and E. 40th Street. He passed a note to the teller who refused reading the note but asked for identification instead. The teller, however, refused the note even though Shuaibu insinuated he was strapping a gun in his jacket.
Later that same day, Shuaibu was arrested at the UN headquarters through the assistance of the retired police officer who worked there.
Shuaibu was previously an employee of the News Agency of Nigeria as a correspondent at the UN headquarters from 2006 to 2009. NAN reported that it terminated his appointment in April 2013 upon Shuaibu’s refusal to resume work in Nigeria on expiration of his duty at the UN headquarters and an extended period during which he requested leave to enable him complete an academic programme.
NAN said it conveyed his formal termination of appointment to the UN, which the UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, confirmed. Dujarric said that Shuaibu’s appointment ended upon NAN’s withdrawal of his accreditation. He also said that Shuaibu was a contract staff for a three-month period in Darfur, after which his contract was terminated in 2012.