OPWS kills 1, arrests 10 kidnappers in Benue, Nasarawa

One bandit has been killed while 10 others involved in banditry and kidnapping were arrested during operations carried out by troops of Operation Whirl Stroke in Benue and Nasarawa states.

Force Commander of OPWS, Maj. -Gen Adeyemi Yekini stated this while parading eight of the suspects before newsmen Saturday at the OPWS headquarters in Makurdi. He said the dead suspect was shot and killed during exchange of fire with troops at Zaki-Biam in Ukum local government area of Benue state. 

He stated further that three out of the four other suspects arrested in Zaki Biam were linked with the wanted militia leader, Terwase Akwaza alias ‘Gana’ while another suspect was nabbed in Tomatar area of the state with a locally made rifle fabricated to fire 5.56mm ammunition; a standard ammunition for assault rifles. 

The commander said one suspect that was arrested in Awe local government area of Nasarawa state was handed over to the Nasarawa state police CID because he was linked to another kidnapping in the state.

Yekini appealed to members of the public to always give information that could help in nipping crime in the bud in the affected states.

“My message is very simple: enough is enough, we will not tolerate banditry, Kidnapping and other acts of criminality in Benue state in particular and not just in Benue but also in Nasarawa and Taraba states.

“I want to appeal to the public to cooperate with us and continue to give us information about the hideouts of these people.

“Some of these operations where we recovered these arms wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation of people who gave us timely information which we worked on to arrest these bandits,” Yekini stated.

He said Items recovered from the suspects include two locally fabricated pistols, a self loading riffle (SLR), five locally made rifles, one AK-47 riffle, some quantities of ammunition and three phones with a Toyota Corolla car popularly known as ‘duck nyash’ which is very popular with kidnappers in Benue and Nasarawa states.

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