Abia State Governor Alex Otti says his administration is intolerant of kidnappers, and would continue to do everything possible to ensure that the state is crime- free.
He spoke yesterday when the state’s commissioner of police Danladi Isa presented four rescued kidnap victims at Government House in Umuahia, the state capital.
The governor congratulated the commissioner and the command for the feat, adding that he had said the administration would not yield an inch of the state to criminals.
“I had instructed earlier today that the house, a bungalow in Osokwa in Osisioma Ngwa local government area where the kidnappers operated from and kept the victims should be brought down completely.
“And we’ll locate the owner of the house if he has not been located and he’ll be prosecuted. Anywhere people yield their properties to criminals that means those landlords are also criminals themselves.
“Once again, I would like to thank the police for doing a fantastic job in the state and I would like to assure them that they would continue to get 100 percent support from this administration,” he added.
Speaking earlier, the police commissioner, accompanied by other officers and the command’s tactical team, said they came to showcase one of the major achievements they had in a couple of days over a kidnaping incident.
“This achievement,” he asserted, “is a product of your unwavering support to the police in the state,” adding that during the rescue operation, six suspected kidnappers were killed while many escaped with bullet wounds.
He said on March 9, the command received a report that the victims, who were driving in their Toyota RAV4 along New Umuahia Road, Obingwa, were kidnapped by armed men.
He said leveraging on credible intelligence, on March 14, the team, using technological means located the kidnappers’ hideout in the said house where they held the victims hostage for five days.
“Upon arrival, the operatives came under heavy gunfire from the kidnappers. However, the criminals could not withstand the superior firepower of the command’s tactical teams. Six members of the kidnapping syndicate were neutralised and the four kidnapped victims were rescued unhurt. The victims were immediately taken to the Police Hospital for medical attention,” he said.
