Adibe Emenyonu in City
The Edo State Police Command yesterday disclosed that it had rescued five kidnapped victims and arrested two suspects in connection with the crime.
The command revealed this in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Bello Kontongs, noting that its operatives recovered arms and ammunition from the suspects.
The statement said the police command acted on a tip off, which culminated in the arrest of the suspects.
It added that some hoodlums, suspected to be kidnappers, had accosted a vehicle conveying corpse from Lagos to Imo State around Ute River, Benin-Lagos bypass.
The suspects, according to the statement, have kidnapped three occupants of the vehicle before the operatives of the police command moved into action and rescued them.
The statement said: “On receipt of the information, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Egba division, SP John O. Emmanuel immediately swung into action, mobilised his operatives and the local Vigilante group for immediate bush combing.
“They advanced into Uteh forest. After hours of bush combing, they came across the suspected kidnappers. On sighting the police, the kidnappers opened fire on the police.
“The team of operatives engaged the suspects in a gun duel. The superior firepower of the police operatives made the suspected kidnappers to abandon the victims.
“However, two of the suspects were apprehended, they are Mohammed Ishaku ‘m’ age 25 and Mubarak Wada ‘m’ age 26, while others escaped with bullet wounds into the thick forest. Three locally made guns, two live cartridges, two Cutlasses and some charms were also recovered from the suspects,” the statement said,
The statement, also, disclosed that three of the kidnapped victims conveying the corpse were rescues alongside two other victims earlier kidnapped, noting that all the rescued victims had been taken to the hospital for immediate medical attention.
The statement disclosed that the detectives of the command “are making progress to arrest other gang members that escaped.
Kontongs, therefore, conveyed the appreciation of the Commissioner of Police, Edo State Command, Mr. Philip Obadu for the timely information received from members of the public, which led to the rescue of the victims and subsequent arrest of the suspects.
He explained that the police commissioner assured the people of Edo State that the command, under his watch, would continue to strengthen the patrolling of various Federal Highways linking Edo State to curtail the activities of hoodlums.
