Imo Police arrest 2 kidnap suspects, rescue woman

By CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI — Eagle-eyed operatives of Imo State Police Command last Wednesday arrested two suspected kidnappers and freed a woman they abducted from Igwuruta, Rivers State.

Confirming this to Vanguard, yesterday, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Vitalis Onugu, a deputy superintendent of police, said that “in the early hours of last Wednesday, four armed men stormed the home of Mrs. Linus Okechi situated along Farm Road, Igwuruta, Rivers State, when she was about taking her children to school”.

According to the PPRO, the armed hoodlums quickly ordered her into her Honda CRV RAV4 vehicle and took her away.

“They drove from Igwuruta to Imo and on getting to Ihiagwa, Owerri West local government area, policemen on stop and search flagged them down but they refused to stop.  Sensing that something was amiss, the policemen pursued them,” the PPRO recounted.

Onugu recalled that the hoodlums ran into a traffic gridlock and on realizing that the police was closing in on them,  jumped out of the vehicle and ran into a nearby bush.

“The police still defied odds and ran after the fleeing gangsters. Their effort paid off as two of the four fleeing kidnappers were arrested,” Onugu said.

He gave the names of the arrested suspects as Josiah Michael, a motor mechanic, and native of Etche, Rivers State, and Ifeanyi Ezeala from Umuowa, Orlu, Imo State.

“The woman was rescued alive and unhurt, while the two suspects have been transferred to Rivers State Police Command for further investigation and possible prosecution,” the PPRO said.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Baba Adisa Bolanta, has appealed to youths to resist every temptation that would lure them into crime.

Bolanta, who spoke in a telephone interview, also warned that the police would not take kindly to anybody or group of persons that proferred to take to crime instead of being useful to themselves and society.