Men of the Ogun state police command have killed five kidnappers during a gun battle that lasted about an hour in a forest in Odogbolu Local Government Area of the state.
The police took the fight to the kidnappers in their den following the abduction of a poultry manager, Tunde Osifowokan, in Idowa, Odogbolu Area of the state.
DAILY POST reports that one Osifowokan was, on Monday, kidnapped by heavily armed masked gunmen in a poultry farm he manages for his elder brother.
But the Commissioner of Police in the state, Abiodun Alamutu, promised to smoke the kidnappers out of their hidden place.
He noted that the police were already closing in on the kidnappers, as the police had immediately started trailing the armed gang since the incident was reported.
Giving an update on the incident on Thursday, Alamutu said, “At about 4:00am on Thursday morning, our anti-kidnapping unit stormed the kidnappers’ hideout at Odogbolu forest along Sagamu-Benin expressway.
“The kidnappers engaged the squad in a fierce gun battle during which five of them, out of about eight, were neutralised while the rest escaped with bullet wounds.
The police also listed exhibits recovered from the kidnappers as a cash sum of N1,185, 070 suspected to be part of the ransom the kidnappers had collected from other victims.
“Other exhibits are one sword, cellphones, substances suspected to be hard drugs, charms, empty shells of AK-47rifleand ststicks.”
Alamutu further said the poultry manager, Tunde Osifowokan, was also rescued unhurt after the gun battle.
According to Alamutu, the corpses of the kidnappers have been deposited at the morgue of a General Hospital.
Alamutu, however, added that the command will not rest until the fleeing suspects are brought to book, insisting that, “criminals who are hellbent on testing the strong resolve of the police in the state will have themselves to blame.”