Four suspected kidnappers yesterday met their waterloo during a shoot-out with policemen in Delta State. The suspects had at about 7.30am kidnapped one Chinedu Amadi, an employee of oil giants Chevron along Refinery Road, Effurun, but the police team who got quick information about the kidnap, trailed the hoodlums to Eku where the gun battle ensued.
The deceased criminals were said to have sustained serious injuries from gunshots and died on the way to the hospital. The victim was, however, rescued.
Three cut-to-size guns, a G3 rifle and two vehicles were recovered according to Delta State Police Command Spokesman, DSP Charles Muka, who confirmed the incident.
Meanwhile, four other kidnapped victims in the state yesterday regained their freedom after their abductors abandoned them at the foot of Oghara Bridge in Mosogar, along the Benin-Sapele expressway as the police were closing in on them.
The kidnapped victims, a family of three – Mr. Ehis Igbehi, his mother Mrs. Theresa Igbehi, and his sister Precious – were abducted at Oghara along the expressway on July 29 while returning to Benin in the family’s Kia Saloon car with registration number AY 472 USL.
The gang re-surfaced later from the bush where they had kept the family to the same spot to whisk away one Pedro Tudeme, an employee of one the new generation banks in Benin.
A police source said the kidnappers may have developed another strategy of waylaying? perceived rich victims on the highway, forcing them out of their vehicles and into the bush, and remanding ransom from their relatives.