TheCable

The Abia state police command has arrested three kidnap suspects involved in the killing of four members of the state vigilance group known as Bakassi in Aba, says Leye Oyebade, Abia police commissioner.

The deceased were reportedly attacked in February by the assailants who allegedly ambushed them on Aba-Owerri road in February.

The Bakassi men were said to be returning to their office in their operational van when the hoodlums reportedly opened fire on them, killing three of them on the spot, while the fourth person died later in the hospital.

The vigilance group allegedly vexed the hoodlums, after it reportedly thwarted their attempt to kidnap a prominent businessman in the city.

Oyebade told journalists in his office in Umuahia, that two of the suspects — Chimezie Ezeigbo, alias landlord, and Emeka Ukaegbu, alias smallpin — were arrested while guarding a kidnap victim, one Christopher Duru.

Oyebade said Duru, a resident of World Bank estate, Aba, was kidnapped on March 17 but rescued by operatives from Ndiegoro divisional police station and the Aba area police command.

He said the suspects, which included one Julius Nnachi of Amaetiti Ekoli in Ebonyi, had confessed to the crime.

The police commissioner said his men recovered one pump action rifle, one English-made pistol, seven live cartridges, one .9 mm live ammunition and five cellphones from the suspects.