The Ebonyi State Police Command has taken into custody three members of a kidnap gang that abducted and buried one of their victims alive even after collecting ransom.
The police also exhumed the corpse of the woman identified as Catherine Okorie Chukwu from the kidnappers’ den.
The were part of a six-man group that abducted a 65-year-old woman in Ishiagu community in Ivo Local Government Area of the state on January 18, 2017, and buried her alive even after collecting ransom from her family.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Jude Madu while confirming the the arrest to newsmen, disclosed that three suspects were arrested by the command on February 10, 2017, and that they have all confessed to being part of the gang that abducted the victim while efforts are being made to arrest the fleeing gang members.
The PPRO identified the arrested hoodlums as 30-year-old Ogbudule Chukwu Matthew, a native of Lokpanta Isuochi Umunochi Local Government Area of Abia State, and Ezenwa Egeonu, 28, and a girlfriend of one of the suspects.
He said, “On interrogation, one of the suspects, Ezenwa Egeonu, confessed that the victim had been buried in Lokpanta Isuochi Umunochi local government area of Abia state.
“The command’s team of Special Anti-Kidnapping Squad visited the scene of the burial and exhumed the corpse of the woman.
“The suspect led a team of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad to the burial scene where the corpse was buried in a shallow grave. The exhumation was carried out by pathologists from the Federal Teaching Hospital, FETHA, Abakaliki, in addition to a team of Morticians.
“Police have evacuated the decomposing corpse of the woman and has taken it for an autopsy to unravel the cause of death, while the command awaits the result of the autopsy for further action.
“On the day the kidnapping took place, the deceased relatives handed over the matter to the police, and the police were on the trail of the suspects combing the vast area of the thick forest in Lokpanta community with tracking devices.”
Madu further disclosed that the police carried out a search on the homes of the suspects and their accomplices in Lokpanta Umunochi community and recovered some exhibits sequel to the confession of one of the suspects that their ring-leader keeps arms in his house.
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