Vigilante, hunters nab kidnapper, recover gun on Abuja-Lokoja road

A combined team of vigilante and hunters  has arrested a kidnap gang at Koton-Karfe forest, along the Abuja -Lokoja Road.

A member of the group vigilante, who preferred anonymity, said the kidnapper was arrested on Friday, at about 6:25 pm after an exchange of fire with the vigilante and hunters along the axis.

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He said the kidnappers, who emerged from the bush attempted to attack travellers, but the vigilante and hunters on patrol engaged in an exchange of gunfire.

“The kidnappers fled into the bush after they discovered that the vigilante and the hunters overpowered them, while one of them was arrested on the process,” he said.

The Senior Special Assistant to Kogi State Governor on Special Duties, Rilwan Bala Eteh, while speaking with our reporter, confirmed the arrest of the kidnapper, adding that both he and the state Commissioner of Solid Minerals, Abubakar Bashir Gegu, led the operation.

“Actually, I received a distress call from some villagers around the Idu axis, in which I quickly mobilised the vigilante and hunters alongside the commissioner to engage the kidnappers,” he said.

He said the kidnapper and the AK -47 riffle recovered have been handed over to the security agents in Lokoja. The vigilante and hunters had last Thursday arrested two kidnappers along the axis, in which two riffles were recovered. The spokesman for the Kogi State Police Command, DSP Williams Ovye Aya, did not pick calls or reply to text messages sent to him to confirm the incident.