Harvest of kidnappers

No fewer than 23 suspected members of some kidnapping gangs have been arrested by operatives of the Special Anti – Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Anambra State Police Command after gunbattles at Okpoko in Ogbaru Local Government Area of the state.

The command has also recovered the victim’s money as well as arms and ammu­nition from the suspects in their hideouts. The state police commissioner, Mr. Hassan Karma told Saturday Sun that the huge ar­rest was as a result of a total war declared on kidnappers following the abduction of some victims, one of them identified as Mrs. Edith Maduekwe.

It was gathered that Maduekwe was kidnapped on October 4 at Oba in Idemi­li South Local Government Area. Efforts to rescue her by the James Nwafor (CSP) led SARs team led to a serious gunbattle with the kidnappers at Orankwu, within the same council area.

At the end of the engagement, over 10 suspected kidnappers were arrested, Mad­uekwe rescued and a ransom of N776, 000, which was part of the N1.4m paid by her friend, was recovered. Items such as AK47 rifles with 90 rounds of ammunition, pump action gun with 10 live cartridges and charms were also said to have been recov­ered.

In another face-off, three other suspects were arrested, about five killed and their victim killed. In yet another raid, four members of a gang of kidnappers who have been involved in kidnapping in Awka and Onitsha have been arrested, with some arms and ammunition recovered from them.

One of the suspects, Charle Parker was said to have been declared wanted for the past four years by the Anambra State Po­lice Command.

One of the gang leaders, Ike Joseph now in police custody, told Saturday Sun: “We went for the last operation and we suc­ceeded. It was while we were sharing the money of the victims that the SARS opera­tives came to our hideout and round us up. Our leader, Parker opened fire at the police and attempted to escape but they ran after him and he was shot.”

CP Karma said the suspects will soon be charged to court.

Also in Benue State, Police Command yesterday paraded six suspects, includ­ing two women and six males for conspir­acy, armed robbery and kidnapping of one Christian Eze at Naka in Gwer West Local Government Area of the state. Cases of kidnapping have become rampant in the state. For instance, in the last two months, no fewer than five persons have been kid­napped, among them children.

Commissioner of Police, Hyacinth Daga­la, who paraded the suspects before news­men at the command’s headquarter in Mak­urdi, intimated that the eight-man gang had on November 2 this year, attacked Eze’s family and robbed them of N500,000. The evil men thereafter kidnapped and took him to an unknown destination.

Dagala informed newsmen that the po­lice had gone after the kidnappers on learn­ing of the incident. Unfortunately, they had killed their victim after collecting N1 mil­lion from the family.

The suspects, who included Zainab Sun­day, Chioma Abah, (both females), Yahaya Abdulkareem, Gabriel Moses, Mohammed Lawal, Monday Achor, Musa Idakwoji and Yusuf Sunday were arrested. And from them were recovered N879,100 being part of the ransom money, one Passat car with registration No. KPA 1044, one litre of en­gine oil container with bloodstain and a lo­cally made short-gun.

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