Soldiers Capture Unknown Gunman In Anambra And 15 Kidnapped

In spite of Governor Chuk­wuma Charles Soludo’s ef­fort at providing security for Anambra State, hood­lums believed to be gunmen al­legedly struck Sunday evening and abducted about 15 persons near Nkpor.

It was gathered that the gunmen reportedly arrived the place at 3 p.m. and held res­idents and travellers captive while shooting sporadically into the air.

It was said that soldiers im­mediately reached the place and engaged the hoodlums in gun battle that lasted to 6 p.m. on Sunday , and in the process caught one of the gun men alive.

Fifteen persons including passengers some of whom were women visiting their children at Trinity Second­ary School, Nnobi, from Asaba were among those al­legedly abducted, according to sources.

It was gathered that the incident took place when a similar incident was happen­ing along Oko and Ekwulobia where the police neutralised the hoodlums and recovered some arms.

The incidents heightened fears over the IPOB Monday sit -at- home which was observed under duress across the state on Monday.

Reacting when contaçted , the PPRO for Anambra State Police Command, Ikenga Tochukwu, stated as follows: “Following information gath­ered of an abduction that took place on 5 June, 2022 about 1:30 p.m. along Oko and Ekwulo­bia, the Police embarked in a rescue operation which result­ed in neutralising, some of the armed hoodlums and recovery of some arms and their opera­tional vehicles. The operation is ongoing no. I will get back to you with full details as soon as I can please.”

The number of casualties was not known at Press time. But about four gun men were said to have been injured during the gun battle.

However, it was not known whether the gun men ran away with the abducted persons when the soldiers attached or whether they were caught in the crossfire during the en­counter.

One of the students of Trin­ity Secondary School whose mother was among the said ab­ducted victims had been crying since morning. Effort to get to her talk to our reporter failed.