By SUYI AYODELE, Benin

Luck ran out of two suspected kidnappers in the agrarian community of Ibillo, Akoko Edo Local Government Area of Edo State, as they were arrested by a combined team of the vigilante group, hunters and police, on Thursday.

In the same locality, another suspected kidnapper, who had earlier been shot during an operation, was later arrested in a hospital where he had gone to seek for medical treatment but could not offer a reasonable explanation when the hospital authorities demanded a police report before he would be attended to.

The two suspected kidnappers, Tribune Online learnt, were alleged to have kidnapped two boys, who were on an errand for their boss along the Igarra-Ibillo road. Those who witnessed the action quickly alerted the vigilante and police, who immediately mobilised and stormed the criminals’ hideouts somewhere in Ibillo where they were arrested.

A leader of the vigilante group who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons told said that: “two young men who work for a businessman were on an errand for their master and they were driving from Igarra to Ibillo, when these kidnappers who are Fulani, stopped them and attacked them with a cutlass and took them into the forest.

“Immediately the incident happened, we were informed and we informed the police so we in conjunction with hunters from the area led by the police were on our way when we saw the two boys who said they were released after they explained to the kidnappers that they were just on an errand for their boss.

“We stormed their hideout and arrested the two of them where we found huge cash and other items with them. They are with the police and will be sent to the State Command in Benin City.”

The source added that “Another Fulani is in the hospital receiving treatment after we discovered their hideout where they had issues and were fighting themselves, in the process three of them died”.

“This particular one was on the run when he had gunshot injuries and escaped with it. The following day, he went to a hospital to be treated but the hospital insisted that he should present police report before he will be treated and that was how he was arrested but the police authority has directed that he should be treated first before facing trial so he is currently receiving treatment under the watch of the police, he further disclosed.

While a source at Edo Police Command said that the Command was expecting an official briefing from the Igarra Divisional Police Officer, DPO, the Command’s spokesman, Chidi Nwabuzor, was said to be on a seminar out of the state. (Nigerian Tribune)

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