Police arrest 6 for kidnapping, robbery

The Police in Benue State have arrested six people on suspicion of cultism, kidnapping and armed robbery at different locations in the state.

Benue State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Moses Joel Yamu, said that a team of policemen on a stop-and-search duty along Aliade-Otukpo Road arrested one Victor Ogbu (25) and found in his possession a locally fabricated Beretta pistol with four live rounds of ammunition.

He said that the suspect confessed to being a cultist and a student of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi. The suspect said he purchased the firearm in Makurdi.

Similarly, Yamu disclosed that the command, based on information, trailed and arrested a suspected kidnapper, one Isaac Atsor (33) at a hideout in Ushongo Local Government Area where he and his accomplices kept their victim, one Mr. Ape, who is the Proprietor of Excel Grace School in Gboko.

The spokesman further said the suspect was arrested with the supposed ransom of 500,000, a locally fabricated Beretta pistol and one live ammunition; adding that the suspect confessed to have committed the crime with four others who escaped when the hideout was raided.

He disclosed that the kidnapped victim has since been reunited with his family while investigation and manhunt for the fleeing members of the gang was ongoing, noting further that preliminary investigation showed that the suspect just finished serving a jail term in March this year.

In the same vein, the PPRO said that the command apprehended four suspects with fabricated dummy guns while committing nefarious activities at Ikyowe village in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of the state.

The police spokesman listed the names of the suspects as Zahemen Avaa (24), Ebenezer Ikyereve (20), Teryima Orkeghen (21) and Lubem Torhile (22).

Yamu said the suspected notorious armed robbery gang who had been terrorising innocent motorists along Katsina Ala-Zaki Biam Road and dispossessing them of valuables met their waterloo when operatives responded to a distress call that some robbers had blocked the road.

The police, according to the spokesman, would soon charge all the suspects to court as soon as investigation was concluded.