The Delta State Police Command reports that it has murdered four alleged kidnappers who ambushed police officers in an effort to free other suspects who had been captured.
This information was released in a statement on Thursday in Asaba by the state police public relations officer, DSP Bright Edafe.
The suspects had been on the command’s wanted list for more than two years, according to Edafe.
“The Command has been on the trail of one “momotimi,” the head of a feared kidnapping gang responsible for the bank robbery operation at a microfinance bank in the Udu Local Government Area in 2021,” he stated.
The Divisional Police Officer of the Ekpan Division was instructed by the Commissioner of Police, CP Wale Abass, to follow up on reliable intelligence on September 23, 2023.As a result, CSP Aliyu Shaba, the DPO, led a group of police officers in a sting operation to Momotimi and his gang’s hideout in Rivers State.
Along with three gang members, the policemen and personnel of the Rivers State Police Command’s Rapid Response Team “arrested the said David Momotimi, 32.”
In an effort to free the jailed suspects, hoodlums who were thought to be gang members ambushed the agents as they traveled to the suspects’ hiding place in Warri on Wednesday, according to the police.
“In the subsequent gun battle, the operatives successfully repelled the assault; two police officers suffered gunshot wounds, though the four suspects dashed into the gunfire in an attempt to flee and suffered critical wounds.