By Ugochukwu Alaribe, Aba

 For those who witnessed the kidnapping incidents that swept through Aba and environs before the deployment of soldiers of the Joint Military Task Force (Operation Jubilee) in 2010, it was an experience no one would like to relive. Aba and its neighbouring communities became ghost towns as residents fled to safer places. Businesses, markets, banks and schools were shut down to avoid the invasion of the then dreaded notorious kidnap kingpin, Osisikankwu, and his gang. That was then.

kidnappers in Aba

Normal life returned to Aba and environs. Those who fled returned and continued with their day-to-day business activities. But recently, kidnapping and violent crimes appear to have returned to the state.

Though security operatives foiled some attempted attacks and kidnappings, many were successfully executed by the criminals, with some victims fortunate to be alive, paying large sums of money to secure their freedom, while the unfortunate ones lost their lives.

In the meantime, kidnappers have been trying to re-launch their trade once again, but the Police in the state appear set to take the game to the criminals. In the last three months, not less than 20 kidnappers have either fallen to the firepower of the Police or undergoing prosecution.

Security Operation Centre

However, worried by the rising spate of kidnapping, Abia State Government has set up a special security operation centre to check kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes in the state, giving out the following telephone numbers to the public to assist with useful information: 08080897172, 0816981056, 09095687884, 08079260355, and 08163267708.

Before the Police took up the challenge, it was no longer news that most of these kidnappers who fled the state in 2010, attempted to return to try their luck once again. The most pathetic case was the killing of a victim, Mrs. Chioma Chukwura, a few days after she and her driver were abducted, and her corpse dumped in the bush along Azumini Road, Ukwa East council area. She was on her way from Calabar, Cross River State.

Crime Alert gathered that the woman’s driver identified as Ike Chikodi, later escaped from the kidnappers and reported the incident to a police highway patrol team who took him to the location, but they discovered that the kidnappers had killed the woman and fled the area.

Sources hinted that the kidnappers may have suspected that the security agencies were on their trail and decided to kill the woman and dump her corpse in the bush. In another incident, a two-man kidnap gang abducted a driver, Mr. Ifeanyi John, whose car broke down at Usukpe Village along the Enugu/Port-Harcourt Expressway at Umuahia, bound his hands and feet and locked him up in the boot of their Toyota Corolla and drove away towards the direction of Imo State.

Collaboration with neighbouring Police Commands Crime Alert further gathered that luck, however, ran out on the gang when men from the Abia State Police Command, in collaboration with her counterpart in Imo State, rescued the victim at Obowo, Imo State following a tip-off by members of the public to Ubakala Police Station in Umuahia. One of the suspects, who gave his name as Ifeanyi Nwunni, 30, a native of Umafai, Imo State, was arrested, while the other suspect escaped.

Superior firepower

In a bid to assert superiority, the Police in the state appear to have adopted the popular saying, ‘the harder they come, the harder they fall’. On Sunday, November 16, 2015, four suspected kidnappers were shot dead in a clash with police at Uratta Primary School, Isiala Ngwa North Local Government of the state. The four were members of a gang of suspected kidnappers who attempted to kidnap a successful farm produce merchant in the area.

The gang who had allegedly perfected plans to kidnap their victim ran into the waiting hands of the Police who were monitoring the situation following a tip-off. On sighting the Police, the suspects opened fire on them. In the ensuing gun duel, four of the suspects were fatally wounded while others escaped. Among those nabbed by the Police include Chijioke Monday, who is a relation of their supposed victim.

Automatic rifles, charms recovered from kidnappers

Items recovered from the suspected kidnappers include a double barrel shot gun with one expended and one live cartridge in its chamber; one locally made pistol with one expended round of cartridge in the chamber; twenty expended (empty shell) automatic rifle ammunition; seven expended cartridges; an ax, charms and wallets bearing an Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, identity card bearing the name of Chimezie Olileanya of the Department of Education/Political Science. In another wallet was found INEC Voter’s Card bearing the name of Gabriel Nwakodo.

Bullet wounds

On suspects who might have fled police arrest with bullet wounds, the Police Public Relations Officer of the State Command, DSP Ezekiel Udeviotu Onyeke, urged medical practitioners to treat such persons, but they must not fail to report them to the nearest police station.

Robbery suspects arrested at poultry feed shop

On November 12, 2015, men of the Eastern Ngwa Police Division, Umuobiakwa in Obingwa council area, nabbed two out of three armed robbers who robbed a poultry feed shop at Umuokahia and shot a woman on her chest. The trio who had successfully robbed the shop owner after firing several gun shots was on their way out when they ran into the waiting hands of the Police.

Two of the robbers, Okechukwu Kalu Okorie, 20 and Wisdom Ubazuruoha, 21, were arrested and a locally made revolver pistol was recovered from them while the third suspect, Starboy, escaped.

In yet another kidnap attack, a driver attached to the Office of the Chief of Staff to the Government of Abia State, identified as Udo Nwachukwu was abducted by three gunmen at Umuezerolo Village square in Umuahia where he was washing a car. The gunmen, who came in a green colour Toyota Camry, took the victim in their car while another member of the gang drove the victim’s Toyota Hilux van with registration number 1 ABSG506.

The kidnappers however ran out of luck when neighbours of the victim alerted the Police who gave the kidnappers a hot chase along Ikwuano area where they abandoned their victim and his vehicle at different locations as they realize that the Police were closing in on them.

Robbers raid hotel

On October 4, 2015, two members of a five-man robbery gang robbed staff and lodgers at a popular hotel located at Ogbor Hills, Aba. According to the proprietor of the hotel who was also a victim of the robbery, the robbers burst into the dancing hall of the hotel where a party was going on at about 10pm, following a sudden power failure, and held every one there hostage, dispossessing them of their valuables.

Items reported stolen include one laptop computer valued at N80,000, including numerous telephone sets and the sum of N92, 000. Luck however ran out on the gang when one of them known as Ifeanyi Clement (aka Don) was identified following sudden restoration of power before they all escaped. Two suspects, Ifeanyi Clement and Chikadibia Orji were later arrested by the Police.

Support by IGP and Abia State Govt

Speaking on the successes made by the Command in an interview with members of the Aba Federated Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, in his office, the Abia State Police Commissioner, Mr. Joshak Habila said despite challenges, the Police have devised many strategies to keep the state crime free, adding that with the increasing support of the Inspector General of Police and the State Government, the Command had been fully repositioned to combat crime.

According to the CP, “We have the support of the Inspector General of Police and the Abia State Government behind us and there are promises that a lot of things would come. We may have challenges but the problem is not logistics; it is the will power of all of us to ensure that we tackle crime. We can’t lay claim to lack of logistics because in the last three months, we have had about 14 new vehicles sent to the Command.”

He urged residents of the state to volunteer timely and useful information about criminal activities to the police, assuring that such have always been treated in strict confidence.

Kidnapping and ransom

On kidnapping, the Police lamented the failure of some families of victims to report to the security agencies. According to him, “When people are kidnapped and demands for ransom are made, people usually say, ‘don’t tell the police, soldiers and other security agencies’.

They are made to believe that if they inform the security agencies, they may not see their kidnapped relations alive, but this is not true. This has created fear and people are not too willing to share such information with the security agencies. Again, 95% of the kidnapping incidents in Abia State have a story behind them, an insider story.

When such people are abducted, the kidnappers often ask them, ‘where is the money you made from so-so business deal or you got from the sale of so-so property?’”