By Emma Amaize & Peter Duru

ASABA—The police in Delta State yesterday, after a fierce battle, shot dead a suspected kidnapper and rescued a teacher, Mr Abemu Gabriel, kidnapped in the early hours of the morning.

This came at a time the police in Makurdi, Benue State, also arrested a 15-year-old boy, Daniel Kahaga, for allegedly kidnapping a 5-year-old pupil of a Makurdi Nursery and Primary school (name withheld).

Vanguard learned that the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Isiokolo, Ethiope East Local Government Area, of the state, personally led his men to chase the kidnap gang when he received a distress call that a citizen was abducted.

Mr Gabriel, from Oviere, who teaches at Oruodo Primary School in the council area, was kidnapped at a railway line at Okpara and whisked away to a hideout by his captors.

Police reportedly cordoned exit points to track the movement of the gangsters, and thereafter,   trailed the gang to Utiyo village in the community.

The kidnappers allegedly opened fire on the police team as soon as they sighted the law enforcement agents.

The DPO, who was battle-ready with his men , returned fire, fatally wounding one of the suspects who died of excessive loss of blood before medical attention could reach him.

The liberated victim, according to a police source, is receiving medical attention at a hospital in the area as at 1.30 pm yesterday.

The search is on for fleeing members of the gang.

Meanwhile, the police in Makurdi, Benue State, last weekend, arrested 15-year-old Daniel Kahaga for allegedly kidnapping a 5-year-old pupil of a Makurdi Nursery and Primary school (name withheld).

Vanguard gathered from a reliable source that the suspect had last Friday gone to the victim’s school to pick her up after school in the guise that he was sent by her parents to take her home.

The source said: “He actually deceived the teachers that he was asked by her father to take the child home, but ended up with her in an isolated premises of a public primary school were he tied up the child.

“At this time, the child’s mother had gone to the school to pick her only to be told that she had been picked by someone purportedly sent by her father.

“The woman raised an alarm and the Police were immediately informed and a search for the missing girl was ordered.

“The suspicion was that the kidnapper actually intended to sell the child to some persons or had intended to demand for a ransom from the parents of the child.

“However, before he could execute his plans, a good samaritan who heard the cry of the kidnapped child in the school where she was hidden, confronted the kidnapper who could not explain what he was doing with the child.

“It was at that point that the Police was alerted and the young man was arrested, while the school and parents of the kidnapped child, who had already raised alarm over her disappearance, were contacted.”

Confirming the incident, Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Superintendent, SP, Daniel Ezeala, said the suspect had been arrested, adding that investigations into the matter was ongoing.