Police Kill Two Kidnap Suspects in Ebonyi

Police Kill Two Kidnap Suspects in Ebonyi

By Benjamin Nworie

A combine team of operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping and Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Ebonyi State Police Command has killed two suspected kidnappers in Ezzagu community of Ishielu council area of the state.

The team also arrested three of the kidnappers.

Parading the suspects in Abakaliki, the police command’s spokesman, DSP Loveth Odah, said the suspects were killed during a gun duel.

In one of the cases, three business persons from Enugu who went for a business meeting in Ezzagu, Ishielu LGA, were kidnapped by the village executives and held hostage for three days.

Similarly, a man in Awugu, Enugu State, was kidnapped and taken to Ikwo, Ebonyi State, where they collected N1milion ransom.

The kidnappers gave the man N5, 000 to go back home. But luck ran out of them when police got wind of it and stormed Ikwo as they abandoned their victim’s vehicle and the N1million, and fled.

The police was able to arrest one of them, Raphael Nworie, from Nkanu East in Enugu.

Nworie said: We kidnapped one man in Awgu, Enugu State, on July 24 and brought him to Ikwo, Ebonyi State, to identify where we came from. On our way going back, we parked on the road, and that was when police started shooting at us and we all ran into the bush. In the morning, when I came out to find my way, I was caught by the villagers. Three others are still on the run. I was the only one that was arrested. It is one of us that knows Ikwo, and we decided to bring the man to Ikwo area.

“The man gave us N1million cash as ransom and the money is in the man’s vehicle which we kidnapped him with. We abandoned the money inside the vehicle and fled when we exchanged gun fire with the police. I have been in this business since two weeks and this is the first time we kidnapped somebody,” one of the kidnappers said.

On his part, one of those who kidnapped three persons in Ishielu, Ebonyi State, Nonso Ugboh, narrated that: “There were some persons from Enugu who came to our community to sell some goods, including noodles, pampers among others, and were looking for house for them. They got the house, and started planning venturing into another business.

The duped the villagers and wanted to run away, so we held them and demanded ransom from them to balance the people in our community whom they collected money from. We took them to the bush we call Sambisa and held three of them hostage. I am the PRO of Eguobodo United in our community and I am the one that was in charge of their hostage taking and I am the one that introduced them to my community.

“They were to pay N200, 000 before they would be released. I disguised as a mad man and collected the ransom on the three of them.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer said Obasi Chigozie who became sick following the incident has reunited with his family.

She disclosed that efforts were on to rescue the girl that was held hostage in the forest in Ezzagu.

Related Articles