No fewer than 24 suspects including those who allegedly killed a staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), late Emmanuel Igwe, and abducted his wife, Igwe Charity, along the Mpu-Ishiagu Expressway have been paraded by the police in Ebonyi State.
It was learnt that some other suspects paraded on Friday were arrested over alleged kidnappings, attacks on police stations, and killings of police officers in the State.
The Commissioner of Police, Faleye Olaleye, who briefed newsmen on the arrest, noted that the arrest of the suspects, who were paraded at the command’s headquarters in Abakaliki, followed intelligence-driven and community-based policing in the State.
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, all 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 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.
He said; “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.”
One of the suspects, Nnachi Cyprian, explained what led to the arrest of ex-military personnel Anthony Onoaha, 34, and Ndubuisi Okeagu, 35, who specialised in receiving ransom for the gang.
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.