6th September, 2016
The Abia State Police Command on Monday said it had arrested 16 suspected kidnappers and some suspected armed robbers alleged to have been terrorising residents of the state.
Mr Leye Oyebade, the state Commissioner of Police made this known at a news briefing at the command’s headquarters in Umuahia.
Oyebade vowed that the command would deal decisively with criminal acts in the state and warned criminals to engage in legitimate business or leave the state.
The commissioner alleged that the suspected kidnappers abducted two relatives on Friday in Aba, while the victims were returning from a pharmaceutical shop.
According to the police boss, the suspects took the victims to their hideout in Uratta, from where they demanded N2 million as ransom.
He said that the police immediately trailed the suspects to their hideout where they rescued the victims and arrested two of the suspects while others escaped.
Narrating their experience to newsmen, the victims said they were accosted on their way from a pharmacy at about 9 p.m. by the suspects at gunpoint.
He said that they were blindfolded by the suspects and then taken to their hideout.
He said that they were asked to call their relations to bring N2 million ransom, adding that they rejected their offer of N500,000.
“They asked us to call our relations to bring N2 million ransom for them and rejected the N500,000 offer we made and threatened to kill us,” he said.
The victim said, “to our greatest surprise, a team of policemen came to the hideout on Sunday and rescued us.”
He thanked the police for their timely intervention saying, “I am now fully convinced that the Nigeria police are working”.
One of the suspects, who identified himself as Nwobilor and a mechanic apprentice in Ugwunagbo, near Aba, admitted to committing the crime.
Nwobilor said that he was invited “to watch over the victims” by the prime suspect, who was said to have escaped during the raid of the hideout.
He said that last Friday’s incident was his third experience and pleaded with the police for leniency.