Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Herdsmen arrested for kidnapping Catholic priest, female politician

Kenneth Ofoma, ENUGU

The Enugu State Police Command has arrested three suspected herdsmen for allegedly abducting a Catholic Priest, Reverend Father Cyprian Ugwuanyi and a female politician of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of the state.


The alleged kidnappers were among 29 suspects arrested and paraded in Enugu for various criminal offences. The suspects were also alleged to have kidnapped Ugwuanyi from Obollo-Afor, John Okoli, his mother and two sisters at Ebenebe village, Anambra State.

The Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdur-rahman, while parading the suspects, identified them as Adamu Mohammed (25) aka Suleiman, from Taraba State, Musa Ibrahim, (28) from Kastina State and Dauda Alhaji (31) from Nassarawa State. Mohammed is also alleged to be the kingpin of the gang.

According to Abdurrahman, the suspects were arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the command on January 18, 2020, at their various hideouts in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

The CP explained that the suspects kidnapped Fr. Ugwuanyi, Parish Priest of St. Paul Catholic Church, Ogbosu Umulokpa in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of the state on January 10, 2020, along Ezeagu/Uzo-Uwani road at Ulo village. The PDP Woman Leader was kidnapped on December 21, 2019 along Enugu/Ugwogo/Opi Nsukka road, said the CP.

He added that while the suspects kidnapped Ugwuanyi on January 14, 2020 at about 9:30pm at Obollo Afor. The gang also kidnapped John Okoli, his mother and two sisters at the boundary between Umumba in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State and Ebenebe village in Anambra State.

Abdurrahman noted that items recovered from them, are one AK47 with 11 rounds of live ammunitions and three locally made long guns with 18 live cartridges.

Similarly, Abdurrahman paraded 26 other suspects for various criminal offences in the state within a period of one month. Abdurrahman said that the command also recovered 13 arms in the period under review through various strategic operations. Abdurrahman noted that one ammunition, 10 live cartridges, five expended cartridges were also recovered from the suspects.

He added: “Other things recovered included; four vehicles, a toy gun, five medical equipment, three laptops and a Plasma Television.’’

The commissioner noted that the feat was achieved through intelligence information and robust collaboration with other sister security agencies and effective partnership with relevant security
stakeholders.

He further disclosed that operatives of the command arrested six suspects on advanced fee fraud and child trafficking on January 8 at Golf Estate, Enugu following a report.

“Items recovered from the six suspects included three vehicles, N2million, three stethoscope, one ink-pad and stamp bearing Enugu State University Teaching Hospital among others,” said Abdurrahman.

Abdurrahman also said that the command arrested two suspects for unlawful possession of firearm, armed robbery and cult activities on January 10 in various locations in the state. He said that five arms and one round of 0.9mm live ammunition were recovered from the suspects.




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