A suspected kidnapper known as Vampire has been killed in a shootout with the police, the authorities announced today.
According to police spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood, Henry Chibueze, aka Vampire, was killed in Omu Awa forest, at Ikwerre, Rivers State.
Moshood said that the “dreaded and deadly kidnap-for-ransom kingpin” was killed by the Police Special Forces, led by the Inspector General of Police’s (IGP) Intelligence Response Team at 1 a.m. today.
He said that five suspected members of the gang were also arrested and cache of arms and ammunition recovered from them.
Moshood revealed that the gang had been responsible for so many kidnappings and robbery attacks in Imo, Abia, Rivers, Delta and other states in the South-East and South-South.
He said that the arrested members of the gang would be paraded and charged to court on completion of investigation.
They were identified as 26-year-old Obinna Elah from Orlu in Imo State, Arinze Abecheta (24) from Ohafia, Isiala Mbano in Imo; Chukwu Ebuka Ikeazota (23) from Ohohia Village, Isiala Mbano in Imo; Samuel Ugochukwu (24) from Ezisno Village, Arochukwu in Abia State, and Clifford Aheana from Omu Awa Village.
“Chibueze, the Vampire, was the criminal spirited away by his gang members on 27 January at the premises of an Owerri High Court,” he said. “He was arrested in 2015 and had been in prison custody following the kidnap of the wife of a government official.
“Chibueze, who was brought to the court alongside other arrested suspects, escaped when gunmen in a sports utility vehicle which had been parked at the premises opened fire immediately he disembarked from the prison van.
“The suspect was then spirited away by the gunmen, leaving five Prisons officials and some bystanders wounded by the gunfire. Two other suspects were taken along with him.”
The Public Relations officer of Nigeria Prisons Service, Mr James Madugba, said that the accomplices had been mistaken for operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), hence no alarm was raised when they were spotted at the Court.
Chibueze who was paraded by the DSS before the state governor in 2015 admitted to having carried out several kidnappings in the state and beyond before his arrest.
After Chibueze’s escape in January, Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, announced a N5million bounty for information that would lead to his arrest.
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One rotten egg down, more to go.