Two Kidnap Suspects Arrested

The renewed commitment of Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha to combat crime yesterday recorded a huge success as the combined security agents otherwise known as Operation Rescue Imo arrested two kidnap suspects that had terrorised the Emekuku-Mbaise axis of Imo State.

The team also rescued two female victims.

Parading the suspects, the Director of State Security Services (SSS) said the team on a tip-off trailed the gang to their den along Owerri-Umuahia road where they kept the victims waiting for payment of ransom by their family members.

He enjoined members of the public to always cooperate with security agencies by giving useful information especially on kidnap incidents.

One of the suspects’ mouth was smashed with a gunshot while attempting to escape and as such he could not make useful statement but his partner who identified himself as Emenike Toogu confessed to have committed the crime.

He gave the name of his partner as Ndubuisi disclosing that both of them come from Osisioma Local Government Area of Abia State.

They were caught in a warehouse where they had hidden the two women they had taken hostage asking for ransom of over N100 million.

Imo State Deputy Governor, Sir Jude Agbaso who visited to see the suspects, commended the Operation Rescue team for applying intelligence in tracking down the hoodlums and enjoined members of the public to always confide in the security agencies in the ongoing war against kidnapping and crime in the state.

“Most of the time, we do not report incidents of crime because we do not want our family members to be victims.  If we do the right thing, the security agencies will definitely do something. Today, we are all witnesses to what has happened going by the arrest of the suspects and the rescue of the victims,” he said.

The Chief of Staff to Imo State Governor, Prince Eze Madumere described the arrest of the suspects as a breakthrough in the fight against crime by Governor Okorocha’s administration.

He reiterated the governor’s resolve to fight towards reducing crime to the barest minimum, adding that over 100 vans were purchased and donated to the Operation Rescue Imo joint security outfit to achieve the goal of making Imo the most peaceful, secure, progressive state devoid of crime.

Narrating their ordeal in the hands of the kidnap suspects, one of the victims who hails from Owerri North, a banker by profession, said she was on her way home along Egbu Road near Emekuku when a gang double-crossed her vehicle and bundled her into the back seat of her car with another victim equally brought into the vehicle before they were taken to an undisclosed location.