Rivers State Police Command said that the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, monitoring unit in collaboration with the State Police Command on Friday killed two suspected notorious kidnappers in Ogoni axis of Rivers State.
The State Police Command Public Relation Officer, DSP Nnamdi Omoni who disclosed this to reporters at the State Police Command’s Headquarters in Port Harcourt while parading one of the arrested suspect said the deceased kidnapped a woman at Woji part of Port Harcourt and held her captive in a thick forest located in one of the villages of Ogoni land.
Omoni said the bandits contacted the family of the victim and demanded a ransom of N30m .
He said the matter was reported to the IGP monitoring Unit who he said took over the negotiation with the bandits.
He said the IGP Unit finally settled with the criminals for N1m and was about delivering the money when the long arms of law caught up with the kidnappers.
He said “they kidnapped the victim on Sunday 6th, January , 2019 and held her captive in a forest in one of the villages of Ogoni. It was when they called the family of the victim for ransom that the family contacted the operatives of IGP monitoring unit”
” The bandits demanded a ransom of N30m. They started tracking them while the negotiation continued. They finally settled for N1m . The kidnapers never knew it was the police that was negotiating with them”
“On an appointed time the operatives went to deliver the money and on sighting the police the bandits opened fire on them. The Operatives engaged them and two of the suspects were fatally wounded while one of them sustained bullet wound.”
He said that the injured suspect led the Operatives to where the victim was held captive adding that the victim was rescued unhurt.
Omoni said that large catches of arms as well as the sum of N1m meant for the ransom were recovered from the bandits.
The rescued victim told reporters that she was abducted by six man armed bandits as she was driving into her resident at Woji.
She said that the criminals blindfolded her before taking her away.
The victim said that the kidnappers gave her only 2 sachets of water throughout the period she was held captive.
