Police arrest prison escapees over ‘kidnap’ of lawyer in Rivers

Operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the police have arrested two persons for alleged armed robbery and the kidnap of a female lawyer in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.

The suspects were said to be among the inmates who escaped from the correctional centre in Owerri in 2021.

The police IRT disclosed the development in a statement on Sunday.

“Crack operatives of the Nigeria Police Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT) have arrested Okechukwu Edison, 42, and Sunday Morison for armed robbery and kidnapping a female lawyer in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital,” the statement reads.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that both suspects, who hail from Rumuji in Rivers State’s Emohua Local Government Area, were long-time kidnappers, armed robbers, and car snatchers.

“After successfully coordinating the kidnapping of a female legal practitioner in the city, the suspects were apprehended by crack detectives of the Force Intelligence Bureau Intelligence Response Team (FIB-IRT) on November 10, 2022 at Rumuola junction in the Rivers State.

“They were apprehended after IRT agents received information about the kidnapping of a female lawyer who had been held captive for three days. Police authorities directed their operatives to conduct an immediate search and rescue of the lawyer.

“The lawyer was released after the suspected criminals were apprehended, and she identified two of the suspects in the police net as the people who kidnapped her and stole N5 million from her bank account.”

The suspects were said to have spent 11 years in prison where they were awaiting trial for alleged kidnapping.

“We left the correctional facility on Monday, April 5, 2021, during the attack on the prison by a group of unknown gunmen who threw dynamites at the walls of the prison and commanded inmates to flee,” one of the suspects was quoted as saying.

“We went into kidnapping, robbery, and car theft after some armed soldiers invaded and destroyed the oil bunkering site we were making a living from after the jailbreak freedom as we lost everything that was sustaining our family.”