Operatives of Enugu State Police Command have arrested 15 suspects for engaging in kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, unlawful possession of fire arms and conspiracy.
Parading the suspects on behalf of the commissioner of police in the state, Ahmed Ammani, the spokesman of the command, Daniel Ndukwe said the arrest of the criminal elements was part of the operational breakthroughs recorded by the command, in pursuant of the policing strategies devised to curtail the activities of criminal elements in the state.
Ndukwe said the arrest of the suspects led to the rescue of seven kidnapped victims and the recovery of seven firearms, two motor vehicles, one motorcycle, one dagger, N701,000 cash and other incriminating exhibits, in the separate operations carried out by police operatives of the command, with support from other security forces and law-abiding citizens.
He disclosed that operatives of Anti-Cultism Squad of the Command, had on 26th June, 2023 at about 2am, acting on a tip-off, carried out a raid operation in a hotel (name withheld) along Enugu/Port-Harcourt Expressway and arrested one Ali Jubril aged 25, a native of Kogi State.
The suspect, according to him, “is reasonably suspected to be a member of a kidnapping gang, while the total sum of N701,000, which he could not give satisfactorily account of and one dagger were recovered from him.”
The police spokesman stated that further discreet investigation is ongoing at the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the Command.
Ndukwe said police operatives of the Command, serving in Igbo-Eze North Division, with active assistance from Forest Guard and Neighbourhood Watch Group, on 25, June 2023 at about 1pm, rescued four kidnapped victims (two males and two females, names withheld), after an intense gunfight with the kidnappers in a forest at Aishi-Ette in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area.
“The kidnappers, most of whom escaped with varying degrees of gunshot wounds, abandoned the victims due to the superior firepower of the operatives.
“However, one of the victims sustained a gunshot wound in his left thigh during the duel, but was moved to the hospital, is responding to treatment and in stable condition; while others and all the Operatives returned unscathed.
“The victims were reported to have been kidnapped at Umuopu village, along Ette/Ogugu Road, on 23/06/2023 at about 9.30 pm, on their way to Obollo-Afor, Enugu State from Ankpa, Kogi State, with the hoodlums said to have demanded ransom of N10,000,000 for each of them,” he said.
