The Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command has arrested the alleged kidnappers of five corps members.
Recall that the victims were kidnapped on the Umuapu axis of the Owerri/Port Harcourt expressway on October 23 on their way to the NYSC orientation camps in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.
Their kidnappers had accosted the vehicles they were travelling in.
The policemen who were on duty around the area of the incident intervened and rescued the victims same day.
The state Commissioner of Police, Dasuki Galadanchi, told our correspondent on Wednesday that the suspects were arrested following investigation which was launched on the abduction.
The CP, who described the abduction of the corps members who were traveling from Ibadan, Oyo State, said that the Tactical Unit of the command was activated to achieve the feat.
The CP alleged that the suspects had been involved in other kidnap incidents, armed robbery and murder cases.
He gave the names of the suspects as Wisdom Nwobodo, 22, from Ikwerre in Rivers State; Okoro Emenike, 20, from Apani, also in Ikwerre: Chukwu Wisdom, 19, from Umuapu in Imo State; and two others
He said that the suspects were arrested on October 28 at Nkaraha junction on the Owerri-Port Harcourt expressway by his gallant officers.
Galadanchi said, “We intercepted the suspects with 16 different types of handsets, three different ATM cards, some charms, one television set, compact disc with two speakers, one red mask, one Access Bank cheque book, and a small quantity of Indian hemp.
“During interrogations, suspects confessed to cultism, kidnapping around Ohaji axis of Imo State and killing of one Augustine Ejimebu, 69, from Apani in Ikwerre, Rivers State.
They also confessed to being responsible for the kidnap of the five corps members who were traveling from Ibadan, the Oyo state capital to Rivers and Akwa Ibom states for the NYSC orientation programme.”
The CP, who ascribed the breakthrough to the community policing strategies of the Inspector General of Police, which his command was implementing, said that the suspects would be arraigned in court.
