By OKOSUN DENNIS
Operatives of FIB-Intelligence Response Team (IRT), in conjunction with Technical Support from TIU Abuja, have arrested three notorious abductors responsible for the kidnap and killing of Superintendent Moses Egbede, the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) of Atam Division in Rivers State.
The officer was kidnapped on July 21, 2020 and after collecting an unspecified amount of money as ransom from the family on July 30, 2020, they went on and killed him.
The criminals were identified as Philemon Barrifa, 23, from Bomu town in Gokana Local Government Area but resides at Agbeta camp in Ebubu town Eleme; Okechukwu Emmanuel (a.k.a Bike Boy), 32, from Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State but resides along High Tension road, Komkom Oyigbo while Barrisitom Gbara, 33, is from Gokana but resident at Agbeta camp in Ebubu town Eleme.
It was gathered that the trio were arrested after they had collected ransom from the family and immediately switched off their phone they used in contacting and negotiated the ransom.
However, the family of the police officer had to approach the FIB-Intelligence Response Team (IRT) to assist in the investigation and immediately swung into action on August 5, 2020 with the aid of technical support from TIU Abuja.
Confessing their involvement in the crime, Philemon explained how the officer was killed adding that the kidnapping of the police officer was planned in his house and executed by himself and other members of the gang.
Philemon reiterated that the Officer was killed after the collection of ransom because during the kidnap, SP Egbede was said to have dragged with them and in the process, succeeded in pulling down the face mask of two of the suspects whom he recognised and they (suspects) felt that if SP Egbede was allowed to go scot-free, he would identify them for arrest hence he was beaten to death.
He also confessed to have gotten N120,000 as part of his share from the ransom collected from the family.
On his part, Okechukwu, who played the role of monitoring the movement of policemen and other security agencies during their kidnapping operations and transported their victims to their camp with his motorcycle and in charge of providing basic welfare needs, said he got N100,000 as his own share.
However, Barrisitom was assigned the role of providing the live cartridges used for the kidnapping of the police officer.
Police source further revealed that the only exhibits recovered from the suspects for now was the phone they used in negotiating the ransom.
As investigations are ongoing, efforts are on to track and arrest a member of the gang that was said to have provided the two AK47 rifle used to execute the kidnapping operation.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/nemesis-three-kidnappers-nabbed-for-killing-superintendent-egbede/
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