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From Joe Obukata Ogbodu, Warri
The police in Delta state, yesterday, said it engaged suspected kidnappers and recovered one AK-47 rifle with a defaced breach number, two pump action guns, one magazine, eight rounds of AR live ammunition, and twenty-one rounds of live cartridges.
The Police Public relations officer, SP Bright Edafe, who disclosed this, said that the suspects, who fled into the bush after a hot chase, concealed the weapons under the engine compartment of their operational vehicle.
He said that the recovery was made following a distress call made to the command’s control room on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, over a kidnap incident along DLA road, Asaba, the state capital.
According to Edafe, police got information that four armed hoodlums were operating in a Toyota Camry 2.4 model reg. No. Enugu BLF 490 AA had kidnapped one male and a female victim (names withheld) and a Toyota Camry vehicle belonging to a woman was also taken by the hoodlums.
He said following the tip-off, the commissioner of police, CP Olufemi Abaniwonda, directed the command’s Special Anti-Kidnapping and Cyber Crime Squad to ensure that the hoodlums were arrested and victims rescued.
Edafe said that the commander CSP Labe Joseph led operatives from the unit and embarked on an intelligence-led operation to trail the suspected kidnappers to Ezenei by Asaba/Benin Expressway.
He narrated: “The hoodlums upon sighting the police team closing in on them, zoomed off and diverted to Oko market road in a bid to escape.
“The police courageously chased after the hoodlums forcing the hoodlums to jump out of their vehicles, hurriedly took to their heels and fled into the nearby bush with bullet injuries, abandoning the cars”.
He said efforts were being intensified to track the fleeing suspects and bring them to book.
