The public relations officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni said on Monday that it had destroyed a camp belonging to suspected kidnappers in Omerelu, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
He said the destruction of the kidnappers’ den was carried out following the attack on motorists along the Omerelu-Owerri road on July 4, 2019.
Omoni said in a statement issued in Port Harcourt that the police had entered the forest in Omerelu in search of the kidnappers and their camps. He stated that the hoodlums, who immediately engaged policemen in a shootout, were repelled, even as they abandoned their camp as a result of the superior firepower of Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
“Personnel of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), in a sting operation on 5/7/19, following the attack on motorists along the Omerelu-Owerri road on 4/7/19 while acting on credible information, stormed a kidnappers’ den in a forest in Omerelu.
On sighting the police, the hoodlums engaged them in a shootout, but they (kidnappers) were repelled and chased farther into the forest with some of them sustaining life-threatening gunshot wounds,” Omoni said.
He listed exhibits recovered from the camp before it was destroyed as one locally made pistol, live ammunition, one 32-inch plasma television and one generator. Other exhibits, according to the state police spokesman, are one bag of garri, automated teller machine cards and photographs of the hoodlums. Omoni added that the Command had intensified efforts towards ensuring the arrest of the fleeing hoodlums, just as he appealed to members of the public to give any information that could lead to their arrest.
