From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Three police officers sustained varying degrees of injuries when they were chasing suspected kidnappers who abducted a yet-to-be-identified man around the Obiri-Ikwerre axis of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, yesterday.
A witness disclosed that the vehicle belonging to the police had summersaulted after the kidnappers they were chasing opened fire on them, which resulted in loss of control by the driver of the police van.
The anonymous witness said the kidnappers fled the scene with their abductee while another police patrol van came to the scene and conveyed the injured officers and a man (suspected to be victim’s aide) shot dead to an undisclosed hospital.
State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Grace Iringe Koko, a superintendent of police, has confirmed the incident to journalists.
She said no police officer died in the incident, but they sustained injuries and had been taken to an undisclosed hospital.
The PPRO added that the Commissioner of Police, Effiong Okon, has deployed tactical teams and ordered for unconditional release of the abducted man.