Operatives of the Eastern Security Network have arrested two notorious suspected kidnappers who specialised in abducting people inside forests, villages and lonely roads in Anambra State.
The two arrested suspects were said to be Fulani herdsmen who identified themselves as Umaru and Musa Ibrahim.
They were apprehended recently at Amanuke in Awka North Local Government Area of the state after they ambushed and kidnapped some land buyers who went to check a land at Mgbakwu, also in Awka North Local Government Area.
The leader of the ESN team disclosed that operatives were on the trail of four suspects but eventually arrested two others identified as Ali.
Two guns were reportedly recovered from them, while others are still at large.
It was gathered that the intervention of the ESN operatives was the saving grace of the kidnap victims, whom the herdsmen also robbed of their belongings, including their phones and undisclosed amount of money, before the security operatives intervened and rescued them alive.
Recounting how it happened, one of the victims, Mr. Patrick Nwankwo, who hails from Enugu State, said they went to the thick bush to check a land that they wanted to buy, and after they were returning to the house of the land owner to conclude their transaction, the armed herdsmen jumped out from the bush and started shooting sporadically.
“Immediately we heard the gunshots, we reversed our cars, and they ran after us, ordering us to stop, while still firing gunshots. And when we eventually stopped, they surrounded us, tied us and led us into a thick bush in Amanuke,” he said.
Corroborating Nwankwo’s report, another victim of the same operation, Mr. Paul Ezeanyika, an aged man, recounted how he hit his head on the ground while trying to escape during the attack, before one of kidnappers pointed gun at him and threatened to shoot him dead immediately if he didn’t surrender himself.
“So, I began to plead with him. I begged and begged and begged, until he then ordered me to come out from where I was and join others. And they told us to lie down and face the ground,” Ezeanyika recounted.
He also disclosed that the herdsmen robbed them of their belongings, collected his phone, undisclosed amount of money he kept inside the car, and even wanted to collect the box of his eyeglasses, only to see that there was nothing inside.
Another victim of the same kidnap operation who was also rescued by the ESN also affirmed all the narratives of other victims as true.
When interrogated by the security operatives, the Fulani kidnappers, Musa Ibrahim, and Umaru, confessed to the crime and claimed that it was their first time in the kidnapping business.
However, contrary to their earlier claims during their confession, they also made a shocking revelation that they were being sponsored by a very influential man in Awka, whom they said provided them with guns and bullets before sending them out for the operations.
They further identified their gang leader as Ali, whom, they said, led the operation.
Efforts to get the reactions of the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Ikenga Tochukwu, on the incident proved abortive, as his telephone line was not connecting as at the time of filing this report.
