Ebonyi Police Command parades 24 terror gang suspects

…  over alleged kidnappings, attacks on police stations, and killings of police officers.

Commissioner of Police Faleye Olaleye, who briefed newsmen on Friday at the command’s headquarters in Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State, said the arrest of the suspects came through intelligence-driven and community-based policing in the state.

He stated that the command arrested nine suspected hoodlums who allegedly killed an INEC staff, the late Emmanuel Igwe, and abducted his wife, Igwe Charity, along the Mpu-Ishiagu expressway recently.

The suspects include Ogbonna Victor, 24, Christian Uche, 30, Chukwu Nelson, 28, Ifeanyi Egwu, 37, Ude Sylvester, 40, Chinedu Aja, 32, Onyebueke Chidera, 24, Ude Neanbueze, 29, and Nweke Lucky Henry, 28.

According to Olaleye: “The command, acting on credible intelligence, embarked on a rescue mission to the hideout of the kidnappers in a forest in Lokpanta community in Umunneochi LGA, Abia State, where the victim was rescued unhurt and the nine suspects arrested.”

All nine suspects are from Lokpanta, in Abia State.

Other suspects—Nnachi Cyprian, 35, Anthony Onoaha, 34, and Ndubuisi Okeagu, 35—were arrested for a string of alleged crimes that include the kidnapping of Stanley Dike and Emeka Nwankwo; attacks on police personnel of Ekumenyi Division at Union Bank roundabout; and Oshiri Division, where three policemen were shot dead.

The command said the suspect, Nnachi Cyprian, made a confessional statement, which led to the arrest of ex-military personnel Anthony Onoaha, 34, and Ndubuisi Okeagu, 35, who specialised in receiving ransom for the gang.

The police boss further disclosed that other suspects, identified as Nwanya Emmanuel, 27, Kingsley Amezi, 26, Okoro Ogbonna, 32, Abraham Ogbonna, 34, Uchenna Ekuma, 34, and Samuel Ajah, 23, were arrested at their hideout in Okposi Street, in the Abakaliki metropolis.

Items recovered from the suspects, accused of robbery and kidnapping, include an AK-47 rifle with 13 rounds of live ammunition, a G3 rifle with a magazine of nine live bullets, and a Lexus 330 RX salon car.

Also recovered from the other suspects on parade are two locally fabricated single-barrel guns, a locally fabricated revolver pistol, one pump-action gun, a stun gun, 18 live cartridges, and assorted phones.