Kidnap kingpin, ‘Vampire’, killed by police

Henry Chibueze, a dreaded kidnap kingpin known as ‘Vampire’, was on Thursday killed in Omu Awa forest, Ikwerre local government area in Rivers state, the police has said.

Jimoh Moshood, police spokesperson, said Chibueze was killed by the police special forces, led by the IG’s intelligence response team at 1am.

He said that five suspected members of the gang were also arrested and a cache of arms and ammunition were recovered from them.

The force spokesman said the gang had been responsible for many kidnappings and robbery attacks in Imo, Abia, Rivers, Delta and other states in the south-east and south-south.

He said that the arrested members of the gang would be presented to journalists and charged to court on completion of investigation.

Chibueze was whisked away by his gang members on January 27 in the premises of an Owerri High Court.

He was arrested in 2015 and had been in prison custody following the kidnap of the wife of a government official.

Chibueze, who was brought to the court along with other arrested suspects, escaped when gunmen in a sports utility vehicle which had been parked at the premises opened fire immediately he disembarked from the prison van.

The kidnapper was then spirited away by the gunmen, leaving five prisons officials and some bystanders wounded by the gunfire.