A combined team of Enugu local security operatives led by Nsukka Local Government Area Neighbourhood Watch has arrested two suspected kidnappers along Opi Agu - Ugwuogo Road.
SaharaReporters gathered that the suspects were arrested on Sunday, July 2, 2023.
SaharaReporters had reported that there had been incessant cases of kidnapping on some major roads in the state. This forced commercial drivers plying the Enugu-Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka Road to recently stage a protest against the rising cases of kidnapping on the road.
During the protest, the drivers displayed placards with various inscriptions to express their grievances against the kidnapping episodes and called on security agencies and the state government to do something about it.
It had been reported that the chairman of the Nsukka Local Government Area, Dr Walter Ozioko, had following the inability of the security agents to curb the rising kidnapping cases along the road, set up Nsukka LGA Rapid Response Squad to patrol the road to ensure security.
However, on Sunday, the RRS in collaboration with the State Neighbourhood Watch and State Forest Guard arrested two kidnapped suspects.
The Chief Security Officer to the Nsukka Local Government, Mr Ejike Okpe, who disclosed this to journalists on Monday morning, said the suspects had been handed over to the police for further investigation and prosecution.
Okpe said that security measures introduced by the chairman of Nsukka LGA to restore security, sanity and tranquillity along Opi-Ugwogo Road had started yielding results.
He assured motorists that the local government would sustain the onslaught against the hoodlums until they are completely weeded out.
He said, "The efforts being made by the people's Mayor, Hon Walter Ozioko, the Executive Chairman of Nsukka LGA, to restore security, sanity and tranquillity along Opi-Ugwogo Road have started yielding results as the combined forces of Nsukka LGA Neighbourhood Watch, Nsukka LGA Rapid Response Squad and their Forests Guards counterparts on Sunday, July 2, 2023, arrested two suspected kidnappers.
"The suspects who have been handed over to the police are currently cooperating with the men of law.”
"It is believed that through them, their accomplices, cohorts and gang would be tracked down," he added.
Okpe said that since the cases of kidnapping increased along Opi-Ugwogo Road, the council chairman had not rested one bit. "And today, the results of his and his team's hard work have begun to manifest.
"Believing that security of lives and property is about the chief essence of governance, the Mayor has vowed to rid, not just Opi-Ugwogo Road but the entirety of Nsukka LGA of kidnapping and other heinous vices," he said.