•Two tricycle snatchers nabbed
A 23-year-old suspected kidnapper, Onwuka Kelly, was arrested on Monday , February 21, 2022, by operatives of Delta State Police Command, after his gang allegedly abducted a 37-year-old victim (names withheld) who was however rescued unhurt.
Disclosing this on Friday, February 25, the command’s Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, said that police operatives got information at about 8:25pm from Otu-Jeremi Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area that some hoodlums had stormed the community and kidnapped the victim with his Toyota Corolla car.
This, Edafe said, made the Divisional Police Officer, Otu-Jeremi Division to send patrol teams in pursuit of the hoodlums.
Before catching up with them, however, policemen attached to Counter Terrorism Unit, Base 5 Warri, who were escorting their principal coincidentally ran into the hoodlums. But on sighting the police, according to the PPRO, the hoodlums started firing shots, to which the police responded.
The vehicle was said to have been demobilized by the team and the suspect arrested while the victim was rescued. Other suspects however escaped.
Exhibits recovered from the suspect included a cut-to-size double barrel gun, a cut-to-size single barrel gun and a live cartridge.
Also, two tricycle snatchers, Goodluck Ahirima and Charles Oyibocha, both aged 24, were arrested while the snatched three-wheeler was recovered by policemen from Agbarho Division.
Prior to the arrest, DSP Edafe said that the tricycle rider had reported at about 10:30am, his attackers who pretended to be intending passengers hired him to convey them to Agbarho.
The tricycle rider added that on getting to Agbarho bridge along Ughelli-Port Harcourt expressway, one of the passengers hit him on the head, forced him out of the tricycle and robbed him of his tricycle.
The report was said to have prompted the Divisional Police Officer to mobilise operatives to investigate, with a view to arresting the suspects and recovering the tricycle.
In the course of the investigation, Thenewsbearer learnt that on Wednesday, February 23, at about 12 noon, upon an intelligence-led investigation, the hoodlums were trailed to their hideout in Eghwarha road Agbarho, where the two suspects were apprehended and the snatched tricycle recovered.
The PPRO said that investigations on the two cases were ongoing, and that the suspects would be arraigned in court after conclusion.
