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• Photo: The Sun Publishing |
The police in Enugu have made a major breakthrough in the bid to end kidnapping of persons in the Coal City as they apprehended a kidnap gang that wore priests’ white cassock as a disguise.
Prior to the catch, kidnappers have been taking their victims from the city to their hideouts, sometimes outside the state, the latest being the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Dan Nwaomeh.
Nwaomeh was kidnapped in Enugu and taken to Port Harcourt where he was held for 16 days before he regained his freedom and dropped by the kidnappers at Aba in Abia State .
But the kidnappers that were dressed in priests’ garment were not as lucky as those who kidnapped Nwaomeh as eagle-eyed policemen at a checkpoint at Mayor pin down point at Awkunanaw area of the state suspected the kidnapper priests and flagged them down to see what they were doing with a middle-aged woman, Mrs. Catherine Aninjoku, who looked ruffled.
The Enugu Police Public Relations Officer Mr. Ebere Amaraizu told Daily Sun that the curiosity of the policemen at the checkpoint was aroused by the presence of the woman said to be about 55 years old among the ‘priests’ at about 11:55 p.m.
At this time of the night it was apparent that the kidnappers were hoping to ferry their victim out of Enugu State.
According to Amaraizu, one of the kidnappers escaped arrest, but had bullet wounds while one of them, Princewell Edeh, 22, and a 300 level Public Administration student of Enugu State University of Science and Technology who is now in police custody is helping them in their investigation.
The woman, a petty trader was said to have been kidnapped at Obinagu Uwani in Akpugo, Nkanu West Local Government Area.
The PPPRO told Daily Sun that the kidnappers might have abducted the woman as one of her sons, a Port Harcourt-based businessman was said to be wealthy.
Said he; “they ran into the roadblock and our men on duty who ordinarily would have allowed the priests to move on wondered what the woman could be doing with priests at such hour of the day.”
“One of them escaped with bullet wounds while the other who claims to be a student of ESUT is helping us in our investigations. We were also able to rescue the victim Mrs. Catherine Ani-Njoku who has a wealthy son residing in Lagos.”
The police spokesman disclosed that the state command has been using the stop-and-search in the state as a crime preventive measure, which, he noted, had been paying off.
He, however, noted that while the command was not joking with the stop-and-search as a security measure in the state; “the men are seriously being cautioned not to abuse it; that it is not a money-making avenue.”
