The Rivers State Command of the Nigeria Police Force has verified the apprehension of a kidnapper who received ransom concealed in a food flask. This operation also resulted in the rescue of a hotelier who had been abducted and shot three times by his captors on December 19, 2023, along Artillery in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, made this known to journalists at a press briefing held on Tuesday at the state Police Command Headquarters, Moscow Road, Port Harcourt.
The CP said that the victim who is a famous hotelier in Port Harcourt was shot three times before he was abducted.
According to the police commissioner, the kidnappers demanded the sum of N26 million ransom from the hotelier’s family for his release and the ransom was paid in full, but the kidnappers refused to release the victim.
Disu said that the hotelier’s family was on the verge of paying another ransom when they informed the Police of the incident on December 30, 2023.
He said that the Kidnappers, at the tail end of December 2023, had taken the victim’s car to a panel beater and vehicle spray-painter whom they had contracted to change the colour of the car.
However, police officers had an encounter with the kidnappers but they escaped.
Disu said that officers of the Command responding to intelligence went to the hide-out of the kidnappers in Agbonchia forest in Eleme Local Government Area of the State, where the victim was rescued and one of the kidnappers injured during an exchange of gunfire with the Police.
The injured kidnapper was arrested and one AK-47, six sets of fake army camouflage uniforms, two magazines and two vehicles – a Lexus Rx 350 and a Lexus 33 were recovered.
The Commissioner said that the Kidnappers had a practice of receiving ransom from their victim delivered in food flasks in dollar bills.
He assured that the Police were trailing other members of the gang and were close to arresting them.
According to him, the injured kidnapper and the kidnapped victim are receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital in the state.
The rescued kidnap victim whose identity was not disclosed told journalists that he saw hell while in the kidnapper’s den and had no words for the horrors he faced.
