Photo Illustration: Policemen On Duty 

By Eyitope Kuteyi

The Imo state police command has arrested a group of deadly kidnap syndicate, allegedly responsible for the abduction and murder of retired Major General, Richard Duru in September 2023.

Parading the suspects at the command headquarters in Owerri the Imo state capital, alongside 32 other suspected criminals involved in various degrees of crime across the state, the command’s Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, stated that the successful outcome of the arrest was a result of the proactive operational strategies adopted by the men and officers of the command in the fight against violent crimes and other related offences in the state.

He said that one of the breakthroughs recorded by the command was the arrest of killers of Major General Richard Duru, Rtd, who was said to have been kidnapped along Bishops Court, Area 7, Orji/Uratta Owerri in his black Mercedes, but was later killed after collecting 50,000 dollars ransom from his family.

He further informed that the arrest of the killers of the general, was carried out by the operatives of the anti-kidnapping unit of the command through a sustained follow-up of intelligent gathering that led to the apprehension of the gang leader and other members of the terror group.

The Police Public Relations Officer also revealed that one of the suspects, Chukwunonso Emmanuel, from Idemili North LGA Anambra State, was arrested in Lagos while trying to obtain a new number plate for the general’s Mercedes Benz car.

He explained further that his arrest led to the arrest of the other two members of the gang, Okoroigwe Goodness and Innocent Ogu and they confessed to the crime.

Okoye maintained that over the past two months, the command had recorded significant achievements in the onslaught against crime and criminality in the state, resulting in the arrest of 435 suspects for various criminal offences ranging from murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, terrorism, advance fee-fraud, cultism activities, stealing and receiving stolen properties.

“A total of 48 different firearms and 552 various calibres of live ammunition were recovered in the course of intelligence-led operations, continuous raids of suspected criminal hideouts, and painstaking investigations during which 13 kidnapped victims were rescued unhurt and 10 snatched vehicles were recovered,” he said.

He commended the operatives of the Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit led by CSP Oladimeji Odeyeyiwa, for their proactiveness in apprehending the suspected criminals who have been terrorising the state.

He assured that the command under the Commissioner of Police, Danjuma Aboki, will not relent in its fight against banditry and all forms of criminality in the state.

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