• Two kidnappers killed in gun battle with police
The Ogun State Police Command, yesterday, said operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) arrested two fleeing members of a suspected teenage robbery syndicate operating on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
They were arrested in Lokoja, Kogi State, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed in a statement. The arrested suspects are Yinusa Isah and Ibrahim Muhammed, who were traced to Lokoja by the CSP Tijani Muhammed-led SARS.
Oyeyemi said: “The gang had, on July 17, blocked the Alapako end of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and forcefully stopped a Mazda commercial bus with two occupants and subsequently dispossessed the occupants of the cash sum of N545,000 and a iTel phone after beating them mercilessly with cutlasses.
“A distress call was subsequently made to DPO Owode-Egba Division, who raced to the scene with his men and were able to apprehend three members of the gang. The case was transferred to SARS, where the suspects made useful statements that led the operatives to Lokoja, where the remaining two members of the gang were apprehended on Friday, July 24.”
Oyeyemi said the suspects were caught with different weapons. Recovered from them were three cutlasses and a wood crafted to look like a gun. He added that the state Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun, has ordered that the stretch of the expressway be properly combed to rid it of criminal elements.He also directed a 24-hour physical police presence on the expressway to guarantee the security of life and prosperity on the route.
MEANWHILE, two suspected kidnappers were at the weekend killed in a gun battle with police and three others captured. The Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Loveth Odah, made this known while parading the suspects.
It was gathered that the suspects were arrested in different cases.
In one of the cases, three business persons from Enugu who went to do their business in Ezzagu, Ishielu local government area of Ebonyi State were kidnapped and held them hostage for three days without food.
In the other kidnap case, a man in Awugu, Enugu State was kidnapped there and taken to Ikwo, Ebonyi state, where they collected N1milion ransom. They gave the man N5,000 to go back, but luck ran out on them when police got wind of it and stormed Ikwo and they abandoned the man’s vehicle they kidnapped him with and the N1million and fled. Police were able to arrest one of them, Raphael Nworie, from Nkanu East Enugu.
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