Police Rescue Kidnap Victims, Neutralize Five Suspected Kidnappers
By Anne Osemekeh, Abuja
Operations carried out by the operatives of the Nigeria Police Force has led to the successful rescue of 5 kidnap victims and the elimination of a notorious kidnapping gang in Kebbi and Abia states.
Force spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, disclosed this on Tuesday.
He narrated that in Kebbi state, police operatives alongside other security agencies and local vigilantes launched a coordinated search-and-rescue mission in Sangara village, Shanga local government area, from where 3 individuals had been abducted by an armed gang in 27th July, 2025.
The operations led the security operatives to group of to Shanga Hills, where the kidnappers were tracked and engaged. During the encounter, the criminals were overwhelmed in a fierce gun duel and fled into the forest with various degrees of gunshot wounds leading to the successful rescue of the three (3) kidnapped victims: Muhammad Nasamu Namata, aged 25; Gide Namata, aged 20; and Hamidu Alhaji Namani, aged 35.
In a separate operation in Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State, on 15th August, 2025, police operatives attached to the State Command on routine patrol around Dankade Village in Ribah District encountered a group of armed bandits and engaged them in a gun duel, leading to the rescue of 2 victims unhurt.
According to Adejobi, the duo were kidnapped on 9th August, 2025, while grazing their cattle in Gairi Forest, Zamfara State. They have since been reunited with their families shortly.
Meanwhile, in Abia State, police operatives acting on credible intelligence stormed a kidnappers’ den at Umuiku Obete Village in Ukwa West LGA, where they engaged a criminal gang, which had been terrorizing residents and commuters along Umuozo Village and Uratta Road, off Port Harcourt Road.
In the course of the gun fire exchange, five of the suspected kidnappers were neutralized, while a thorough search of the scene led to the recovery of 6 AK-47 rifles, 335 rounds of live ammunition, 14 magazines, 5 handsets, 3 cutlasses, 5 operational jackets, an axe, a pair of boots, 1 polo charm, and 1 double-barreled long gun.
Follow-up operations are ongoing to apprehend other fleeing members of the gang, Adejobi said.
Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, has lauded the commitment of the officers involved in the operations, and urged them to sustain the tempo and intensify the ongoing onslaught against criminal actors across the nation.
This is even as he reassured members of the public of the continued resolve of the Force to combating crime in all forms and to maintain law and order across the country.
