Two suspected kidnappers of Apostolic church pastors killed, one at large

The Nigeria Police Force, Cross River State Command operatives have confirmed the killing of two out of the three suspected kidnappers involved in the abduction of four Apostolic church clerics in August 2022.

The State Commissioner of Police, Aminu Alhassan gave the confirmation in Calabar on Sunday, September 17, 2022.

Alhassan said that the two suspects were neutralized by the Supol Awodi Abdulhameed – led Anti-cultism and kidnapping squad that carried out a covert operation based on credible intelligence gathering.

According to him “it is true that we neutralized two kidnap kingpins who were involved in the kidnap of some pastors who went for church planting at Creek Town, in Odukpani Local Government Area of the state.

He added, “The two couldn’t make it alive, while the third who is now at large sustained bullet wounds during a gun duel” and appealed to the locals to be on the lookout for anyone with gun wounds in their community.

CP Alhassan warned that the police will no longer wait for criminals to commit crimes, but shall continue to smoke them out from their various camps and hideouts in the state especially as we have entered the ember months. He urged law-abiding citizens to be more vigilant and shouldn’t take security for granted because it’s everybody’s responsibility saying the command will keep on pressing for the mark to weed out criminals in the state..

He said that the trio had been terrorizing inhabitants of the area for a long until they were busted by the anti-cultism and kidnapping Unit.

It would be recalled that Pastor (Dr) E.E. Edet, JP Field Superintendent of the TACN, Creek Town Field, and three abducted clerics of the Apostolic church in Creek Town Field had gone for church planting when they were abducted and were later released by their abductors after paying N10 million ransom.

By: Archibong Emmanuel
(Snr. Reporter)