Police kill 3 suspected kidnappers dressed in pastor’s outfit
The Police, at the weekend at the Agbogidi Motor Park, close to the Onitsha head bridge, along the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha expressway, killed three suspected kidnappers who dressed in pastor’s outfit.
This occurred during a gun duel between a police patrol team and suspected kidnappers.
Passengers and drivers at the motor park at the time of the incident ran away to avoid being hit by stray bullets in the gun battle which lasted for over 10 minutes.
The suspects, according to eyewitnesses, drove into a bar in the park in a Toyota Corolla car reportedly waiting for their target, said to be a United Kingdom-based native of Asaba who came home for Christmas.
It was gathered that a mole in the family of the UK-based Nigerian had given out information about him to the gang. A reliable source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the hoodlums patiently waited at the bar for a signal from their informant on the appropriate time to strike when they ran out of luck.
According to the source, the suspected kidnappers, on sighting the police patrol team, opened fire with spontaneous response from the police officers.
Showing the corpses of the suspects to journalists at about 8pm on Friday, the Delta state Police Commissioner, Mr. Ibrahim Zanna, said the police acted on credible information, disclosing that his men were on the trail of the mole that reportedly fled the scene before he could be fished out by the police.
Zanna said the vehicle of the suspects, one AK 47 rifle and one pump action gun, one locally made pistol with 19 rounds of 7.6mm, eight live cartridges, one expended cartridge and church aprons were recovered.
Noting that some brave persons at the motor park assisted the police during the operation, he called on the general public to always provide the police with credible information that could lead to the tracking down of hoodlums.
