Abraka: Police Foil Kidnap Operation, Rescue Three In Delta

By Daniel Dafe
Men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), yesterday demonstrated gallantry, as they took the fight against kidnapping to a bush close to Abraka in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State where a lady, Oghenevwaire Welfare and two males, Husseni Adamu and Shamsu Shehu were kept after a successful kidnap operation by a 7-man gang two days ago.
According to police sources, the kidnap operation took place on Tuesday, June 16th April, 2020 along the Benin-Abraka expressway at about 8p.m.
The kidnappers are said to have flagged down a trailer pretending to be security operatives and forcefully carried the two drivers, Husseni Adamu and Shamsu Shehu into the bush.
In a second operation that same night, they stopped a Ford bus loaded with cassava and again took two of the occupants, Oghenevwaire Welfare and Prince Ogheneyoma into the bush.
While the trailer was supposed to be headed for Kwale to carry goods, the Ford bus was headed for Agbara-Otor.
Oghenevwaire and Prince are said to be involved in the business of buying cassava from the Benin farm reserve for sale at Agbarha-Otor.
The police first got news of the kidnap when the driver of the Ford bus, Endurance Odiyovwi, who the kidnappers asked to run into the bush escaped.
Endurance, rather than run into hiding in the bush, decided to find his way through the thick forest, got a motorbike and went to the Abraka Division of the Police to raise alarm.
The police that night led by Supor Iweka Marvelous, the Station Officer, went to the scene of the incidence and were able to recover the trailer and the Ford bus.
The same night, one of those abducted, Prince escaped while the kidnappers were asleep and found his way to the station in the morning.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), CSP Hassan Jimoh immediately swung into action and led a 30-man team made up of Abraka Police Division patrol team, SARS operatives, local vigilante and hunters to the bush with the help of Prince to the spot where they were initially kept, but discovered that the kidnappers had changed location.
Not deterred, they were able to trace the movement of the kidnappers in the bush through their footprints and eventually located them deep in the forest. But, a gun battle between the police and the kidnappers occurred that left the 7-man kidnap gang comprising 6 Fulani men and an Urhobo indigene escaping with some of them sustaining gunshot wounds.
According to one of the policemen, they would have been able to gun down the kidnappers, but were careful not to hit any of the kidnapped victims, adding that the kidnappers had in their possession four AK-47.
The three persons in the said kidnapper’s den were rescued unhurt, as the police found the phones of the kidnappers that are presently in their custody.
According to one of those kidnapped, he heard the assent of the kidnappers and said that they were from Taraba State.
The kidnappers had demanded 5 million naira ransom from one of the truck driver’s relative that resides in Jos and reduced the ransom fee from Oghenevwaire’s husband in Agbarha-Otor to N100, 000.
But for the swift intervention of the police, family members of those kidnapped were already in the process of raising the money to secure the release of their loved ones.
At the time of filing this report the police were still on a chase for the fleeing kidnappers.