The Commissioner of Police in Abia, Mr Leye Oyebade, says
the command has arrested three kidnap suspects involved in the gruesome killing
of four members of the state vigilance group known as Bakassi in Aba.
The deceased were reportedly attacked by the assailants, who
allegedly ambushed them on Aba-Owerri Road around 4 p.m. in February.
The Bakassi men were said to be returning to their office in
their operational van when the hoodlums reportedly opened fire on them, killing
three of them on the spot, while the fourth person died later in the hospital.
The vigilance group allegedly drew the ire of the hoodlums,
after it reportedly foiled their attempt to kidnap a prominent businessman in
the city.
Oyebade told newsmen in his office in Umuahia, that two of
the suspects — Chimezie Ezeigbo, alias ‘landlord’, and Emeka Ukaegbu, alias
‘smallpin’ — were arrested while guarding a kidnap victim, one Christopher
Duru.
Oyebade said Duru, a resident of World Bank Estate, Aba, was
kidnapped on March 17 but rescued by operatives from Ndiegoro Divisional Police
Station and the Aba Area Police Command.
He said the suspects, which included one Julius Nnachi of
Amaetiti Ekoli in Ebonyi, had confessed to the crime.
The police commissioner said his men recovered one Pump
Action Rifle, one English-made Pistol, seven live cartridges, one .9 mm live
ammunition and five cellphones from the suspects.
The command, he said, also arrested a Lagos-based shoe
trader, Godswill Nwokoh, 51, for allegedly defiling a 12-year-old boy in a
guest house in Aba.
The boy, a Junior Secondary School 1 student, said that he
was lured into the guest house by Nwokoh, who woke him up in the night and
allegedly “used” him.
He said that Nwokoh muffled his mouth with his hands and
prevented him from screaming during the act.
Nwokoh, however, denied the allegation in an interview with
newsmen, saying he only allowed the boy to spend the night in his room, after
he allegedly strayed from his parents”’ home in Aba.
Nwokoh, who said he usually came to buy Aba-made shoes and
belts, said he was in the room with the boy and his friend as well as his son,
who accompanied him on the trip from Lagos.
The police commissioner later gave a breakdown of arrests
made by the command in the last eight months.
According to him, 134 persons were arrested for different
criminal offences, ranging from armed robbery to kidnapping, car-snatching,
rape, murder, pipeline vandalism, cultism and child-trafficking, among others.
Oyebade said the command recovered 32 arms, 188 ammunition,
40 vehicles, 15 motorcycles/tricycles and rescued 15 kidnap victims.
The rescued victims included 90-year-old Pa Jeremaiah
Adindu, the father of Mr Godwin Adindu, the former Chief Press Secretary to
Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu.
He said the suspects would be arraigned at the end of the
investigations.
Meanwhile, Oyebade said that the command would soon
inaugurate a crack team known as Tactical Response Squad, currently undergoing
special training in combating heinous crimes.
He said the squad, to be deployed in Umuahia and Aba, would
be unveiled at the end of the training and posted to areas notorious for
heinous crimes, such as kidnapping and armed robbery.
The police commissioner said that the governor had promised
to support the command with the necessary logistics that would enable it to
commence operations with ease.
He appealed to members of the public to assist the police
with useful information that would help them to discharge their mandate of
protecting lives and property.
Oyebade said the state government had announced a N1 million
reward for any informant that assisted the police to arrest notorious criminal
suspects in the state.
