Police Silent on Ransom as Kidnaped Turkish Nationals are Freed

By Okon Bassey in Uyo
 

Two Turkish nationals kidnapped in Akwa Ibom State two weeks ago have been rescued by the Police in the state.

The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Don Awunah who disclosed this on Friday while briefing the media on the activities of the State Police Command did not indicate if any ransom was paid for the expatriate to walk into freedom.

He hinted that five suspects involve in the kidnap of the Turkish nationals had been arrested while further investigation was going on.

Awunah explained that the expatriates were kidnapped and taken to the creeks of Calabar/Oron waterways.

“Following sustained Police activities in the waterways, deployment of technical platform, cultivation of actionable intelligence and skillful professional negotiation, the two Turkish gentlemen were released on April 19, 2017 and the victims of crime have been reunited with their colleagues after medical assessment”, the Police Commissioner said.

The two Turkish nationals working with a construction firm in Eket local government area of the state were kidnapped in their hotel room in Eket on April 9, 2017 by unknown gunmen.

 Similarly, Awunah said notorious kidnap gangs who had on March10, 2017 kidnapped an Engineer from his petrol station at Ebughu village in Mbo local government area of the state have been smashed by the Police.

He said members of the gangs were arrested following the heat from the team of the newly formed police group code name “Operation Impact” which forced them out of their hide out.

 “The effort of operatives yielded positive result leading to the rescue of the victim unhurt and the arrest of three of the perpetrators of the kidnap, who upon interrogation, confessed to the crime and equally disclosed the identity of their other gang members who are presently at large”, he explained.

Also, four suspects, Godwin Edokpolor, Chibuike Amadi, Maxwell John and

Uchenna Onyekwere, have been arrested by the police for Advance Fee Fraud. They were accused of hacking into a customer’s account and fraudulently withdrew and transferred the sum of overN40.7 million into various accounts.

According to the State Police boss, the Regional Manager of Diamond Bank Plc, covering the South-South and South-East region reported that the account of a customer was hacked into and the sum of over N40.7 million fraudulently withdrawn and transferred into various accounts.

He said the four arrested suspects upon interrogation owned up to the commission of the crime and have accordingly be charged to court and remanded in prison custody.