Troops of Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), the military spike operation in Benue State, on Wednesday raided a kidnappers’ den at Udei, Guma Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

In another operation, the troops rescued three persons from the hands of another kidnappers’ group at Tsegetin, Tiza and TseTor villages in Logo LGA of the state.

In a statement signed and made available to Sunday Independent in Makurdi on Saturday by the Force Public Relations Officer (PRO), OPWS, Flight Lieutenant, Audu Hussaini Katty, noted that both of the operations were made pos­sible with the aid of credible information by sources in the areas.

He explained that although in the first encounter, the kid­nappers fled their den on sight­ing the troops, they were able to recover uniforms, mobile phones and other belongings of the bandits.

However, in the second en­counter, the troops rescued and reunited the three victims that were abducted by the kidnappers with their family mem­bers.

According to Katty, “Follow­ing human intelligence on the suspected kidnappers hideout on December 23, 2022 troops of Operation Whirl Stroke raided a kidnappers’ hideout at Udei branch village in Guma LGA of Benue State.

“Though the kidnappers fled the area on sighting advancing troops, the gallant troops con­ducted a search and recovered one pair of Nigerian military camouflage uniforms with the rank of Master Warrant Offi­cer, two black Nigerian Police Force uniforms, two blue Ni­gerian Police Force uniforms with the name tag ‘Bashir Sulaiman’.

“Troops also recovered two uniforms with the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police; two black berets, five MTN SIM packs, four passports, three pink debit cards, three ATM cards, two voters cards, one identity card, 1 neck tie, 4 mobile phones, 2 pairs of cover shoes, one rubber sandal and three civil jackets.”

While he explained that all the items that were recovered weresu in custody of the troops, Katty observed that the troops were keeping vigil over the area “for possible arrest of the sus­pects.”

But, Katty said, “In another outing, troops of Operation Whirl Stroke responded to a distress call from a credible hu­man intelligence on suspected kidnapping of three farmers at Tsegetin, Tiza and TseTor villages in Logo LGA of Benue State. Troops swiftly responded and moved to the area.

“On arrival, troops trailed the kidnappers’ withdrawal route and rescued the three victims which were identified as MrAdagbeTerungwa (37 years), Mr Terngu Jackson (36 years) and Mrs Juliana Adule (33 years).

“The rescued victims have been reunited with their fam­ilies. Normalcy has since been restored and monitoring of the area is ongoing.”

He further pledged that “Troops of operation Whirl Stroke will continue to demon­strate professionalism in carrying out assigned duties.

“The general public is advised to continue to give useful and timely information on sus­picious activities of criminals in their communities.” (Sunday Independent)