22nd December, 2016
The Delta Police Command on Thursday in Warri said that has rescued the Ovie of Agbarha-Warri Kingdom, Orhifi Orovwagbarha, who was abducted by suspected Fulani herdsmen along Asaba-Warri road on Wednesday.
The Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, Mr Zanna Ibrahim, said that the monarch was rescued in the early hours of the day.
Ibrahim said he led a team of 100 police operatives and 30 local vigilantes to search the Ossissa forest close to where he was abducted.
”The Ovie was rescued by a police crack team personally led by me. He has been conveyed to Asaba where he was travelling to before the incident.
”His abductors were fleeing with him to a different location after our men had combed the entire bush in search for him.
“He was abducted by herdsmen; they are very conversant with the bush even more than the indigenes.
”Our men sighted the movement of the hoodlums through a touch light and we shot into the air and they responded.
”They engaged us in an exchange of gunfire and left the monarch behind,” he said.
The CP blamed the monarch’s driver for not reversing the vehicle when he sighted the hoodlums dispossessing other vehicles ahead of them.
“We have learnt our lessons from the kidnap; the need to be alert at all times,” he said.
Ibrahim, however, said that no arrest has yet to be made in connection with the abduction.
He said that the command had spread its dragnets to various locations to apprehend the fleeing suspects.