The police in Benue State have foiled a plot to kidnap the bursar of the Joseph Sawuan Tarka University of Agriculture, Makurdi.
Spokesperson of the police in the state, DSP Catherine Anene, said police operatives prevented the kidnapping following information about the regrouping of a kidnapping gang in Makurdi.
She said a team of police officers were deployed to trail and arrest the suspects, stressing that on Saturday at about 12pm the suspects assembled at Ankpa Quarters, Makurdi, and perfected plans to carry out their nefarious act.
She explained that luck ran out on them when the men of Operation Zenda, led by their Commander, CSP Justine Gberindyer, invaded their hideout and arrested their leader, Paul Terwase Agbem aka Top, of Gwarimpa, Abuja, and Mson Yaasa of Adikpo in Kwande LGA of the state.
Anene said Top confessed to have completed plans on the same day to kidnap a staff of the Joseph Sawuan Tarka University who he alleged refused to pay him money for a contract he executed in the school.
In a related development, an attempt by gunmen to abduct a resident of Gegu-Beki community in Koton-Karfe LGA of Kogi State yesterday met a stiff resistance as vigilantes engaged them in a gun battle.
A resident, Usman Adaohikwo, said the incident happened in the early hours of Tuesday when the suspected kidnappers invaded the community and attempted to enter the house of a businessman, Alhaji Mai Riga.
He explained that, “It was after they surrounded the house of Alhaji Mai Riga and started shooting to scare people away that the vigilantes mobilised and engaged them in shootout until they fled.”
The Onyiwo of Gegu-Beki Chiefdom, Alhaji Mohammed Abba, confirmed the incident, saying the suspected kidnappers invaded the community in an attempt to kidnap Alhaji Mai Riga, but that “luckily enough, the vigilantes engaged them in a fierce gun battle until they fled.”
AfroSky News further learnt that the kidnappers, after fleeing the community, later ambushed vehicles at Ahoko village the along the Abuja-Lokoja Highway, where they abducted a number of travellers.
The spokesman of the police in Kogi, DSP Williams Ovye Aya, did not pick calls or reply to text a message sent to him about the incident.
