Nine suspected kidnappers have been arrested over killing and kidnapping of a staff with the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Mr. Emmanuel Igwe.
Late Igwe was shot dead by the said kidnappers and they adopted his wife, Mrs Charity Igwe, who was on a journey with him about nine days ago at Ivo local government of Ebonyi state. Mrs. Igwe was said to have been rescued.
Chairman of the local government, Mr. Emmanuel Aja , in an interaction said that eight people were arrested.
He noted that it took the combined effort of security agencies to apprehend the culprits.
He said: “The kidnappers who killed INEC staff last Sunday and abducted his wife, and also, butchered the father of Ohaneze youth leader, Ajah Okeafor, have been arrested.
“We didn’t sleep since that incident happened. The kidnappers demanded ransom and we gave it to them. We tracked them to their hideout through the joint efforts of the security agencies and my men. We have apprehended 8 of them and we are still searching for the remaining 2, who are the major kingpin.”
Ajah, however, stated that the arrested gang is allegedly responsible for the various kidnapping incident taking place in the council area, and vowed to mobilise security operatives to raid their hideout to forestall further occurrences.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Office(PPRO),
SP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, noted that the wife of the deceased has been rescued.
She said the operatives of the command who acted on the information rescued the woman.
“Operatives of the command, acting on credible information, rescued the revealed kidnapped victim, Charity Igwe whose kidnap was unveiled during the investigation.
“Nine suspects were arrested from a thick forest in Lokpanta in Abia state and they are all from Lokpanta in Umunneochu LGA of Abia state.
Items recovered are MP3, various handsets, and gang pictures.”
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