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The Enugu State Police Command has rescued four hostages in two separate intelligence-led operations carried out within Enugu State and across the Benue State border, recovering live ammunition and other incriminating exhibits from the kidnappers’ hideout.
However, the operations also ended on a tragic note as security operatives recovered the decomposing body of a male victim who was allegedly shot by the abductors while in captivity.
Police Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe, who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, said the operations involved police tactical units working with the military, local security outfits and vigilante groups.
According to him, the first operation involved operatives of the Udenu Police Division, the Anti-Kidnapping Section of the Command’s Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU) and the Distress Response Squad (DRS), who teamed up with personnel of the Orukam Police Division in Benue State, the Nigerian Army, the Benue State Civil Protection Guards, the Enugu State Forest Guards, Neighbourhood Watch members and the Ezimo Vigilante Group.
He said the operation, which also leveraged the Inspector-General of Police’s Handshake Patrol initiative, led to the rescue of two brothers abducted on August 3 at Ezimo-Ulo in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State.
The victims were rescued unharmed at about 1:40 p.m. on August 4 at Ikele in Owukpa Community, Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State, after security operatives engaged the kidnappers in a fierce gun battle.
“The kidnappers fled with varying degrees of gunshot injuries,” the statement said.
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Items recovered from the kidnappers’ hideout included 15 rounds of live ammunition, the victims’ Android phones and car keys, other mobile phones and accessories, a bottle containing suspected hard drugs and drug paraphernalia, clothing items and ₦11,800 in cash.
The rescued brothers were later debriefed and reunited with their family.
In the second operation, operatives of the Umabor Police Division, the Anti-Kidnapping Section of the VCRU, the Enugu State Forest Guards and members of the Neighbourhood Watch rescued two victims abducted on July 31 at Amukpa Village in Ogbozara Community, Nsukka Local Government Area.
The command, however, disclosed that another victim who had been held by the same gang died from gunshot wounds inflicted by the kidnappers while in captivity. His decomposing body was later recovered from the forest.
The two rescued victims were debriefed before being reunited with their families.
Commending the operatives and other security agencies involved in the operations, the Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, CP Mamman Bitrus Giwa, directed them to intensify the ongoing manhunt for the fleeing suspects.
He reaffirmed the command’s determination to combat kidnapping and other violent crimes across the state and urged residents to remain vigilant and continue providing credible and actionable information to security agencies.
