Police in Benue State have apprehended two suspected kidnappers and rescued an abducted from the abductors’ den.
Spokesperson to the Benue command, SP Anene Sewuese, disclosed this in a brief report on Friday.
She revealed that on Thursday, a team of Operation Zenda JTF were on patrol within Otukpa, Ogbadibo LGA, when information was received that one Raphael Okpe of Akere village was kidnapped on his way to the farm.
According to the police spokesperson, the team responded immediately and chased the kidnappers into their hideout where they engaged the gunmen in a duel.
Consequently, two of the suspects named Abdulahi Mohammed and Yusuf Saidu were arrested while the other suspects escaped with gunshot injuries.
The victim who was already shot in the leg by the hoodlums was rescued and taken to hospital where police say he is responding to treatment.
Following the arrest, ten rounds of AK47 ammunition were recovered from the kidnapers’ dungeon.
SP Sewuese said investigations are still ongoing, adding that the force will not rest on its oars till the suspects at large are apprehended.
Benue State has been the secne of so many attacks that has claimed hundreds of lives since the eruption of Herdsmen/Farmers conflict into National consciousness in 2015.
The killings that has accompanied the conflict and displacement of thousands of locals especially in the Agatu area of Benue State has also created a major point of departure between the State and Federal Government.
It was also the principal reason that led to the defection of the State Governor, Samuel Ortom, from the All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party in the period leading to the 2019 Election in the State.
The Governor has also gone on record to accuse the Federal Government of bias in addressing the issue of insecurity, abduction and killings by suspected herdsmen in the State.