By Ikeugonna Eleke
Police operatives attached to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested two persons suspected to be members of a kidnap syndicate, which operates in Anambra State.
The suspected kidnappers, both 23 years of age, were arrested after they robbed a victim, abducted and kept him in their den for payment of ransom, but who later escaped and reported to the police.
According to a press release by the Anambra State Police Command’s spokesperson, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, the men were arrested in the early hours of Wednesday, July 2.
He said: ‘The arrested suspects belong to a kidnapping gang. The suspects were allegedly involved in a reported case of kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted murder, where the victim escaped from a criminal den in Umudioka, Dunukofia Local Government Area.
‘They also kept the victim in one of their criminal dens while demanding ransom from his family members and friends. Fortunately for the victim, he escaped from their den and was debriefed accordingly by the Police operatives.’
Ikenga said the two male suspects: Onele Solomon, a.k.a. Federal, and Simeon Chidera, a.k.a. Chaplet, both 23 years of age, and other syndicate members who were currently at large, specialized in luring their victims in the guise that they were selling land to them.
‘The two suspects on 31st May, 2025, abducted a victim, dispossessed him of his personal belongings and inflicted life-threatening injuries on him with a machete.
‘Operatives have activated onslaught operations given the confessions of the two suspects currently in custody for the arrest of other gang members and to dismantle the criminal network in the area,’ Ikenga said.
