The police in Ogun State recently apprehended a suspected kidnapper terrorizing the Kara Bridge end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Police Public Relations Officer, revealed this in a statement on Sunday, adding that a 62-year-old victim, Sheu Anafi, was also rescued.
The arrest, according to Oyeyemi, came after a commercial driver reported to Warewa divisional headquarters that he was attacked by gunmen while driving on an unpaved road to avoid traffic on the long bridge.
According to a police spokesman, the driver was traveling from Ilorin in his Ford commercial vehicle, registration number LRN 596 ZY, with seven passengers.
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“While driving through the said access road, they were attacked by some unknown gunmen who made all the passengers run into different directions in the nearby bush and a passenger was abducted in the process,” Oyeyemi said.
Following the report, the Divisional Police Officer, Warewa division, Abdul Fatai Ogunsanya, led a joint operation comprising the Command’s tactical teams, local Vigilantes, So-Safe Corps and men of the Oodua Peoples Congress for the bush combing in search of the abducted man.
“Their efforts yielded positive results when the hideout of the kidnappers was located and the security operatives engaged them in a gun battle.
“At the end of the encounter, one of the kidnappers Ibraheem Abubakar who claimed to have come from Sabonganmu-Bompai road, Kano state, was arrested while others escaped with varying degrees of gunshot injuries, and the victim, 62 years old Sheu Anafi was rescued unhurt,” the police spokesman added.
Following his arrest, the suspect was said to have confessed to being a member of a seven-man gang that had recently terrorized the Long Bridge stretch.
In response to the arrest, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, directed that the suspect be immediately transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department for a discreet investigation.
He also asked members of the public, particularly hospitals, to notify police if they saw anyone with a gunshot wound in their neighborhood.