The Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit in Rivers State, at the weekend, rescued eight persons, including two wives of police officers from kidnappers in Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area.
The military also rescued six kidnapped persons who were travelling out of Port Harcourt along the Elele-Omerelu-Owerri Road.
Theportcitynews gathered that the eight were occupants of a commercial bus which was returning to Port Harcourt from Onitsha before the bus was ambushed and diverted into a nearby forest around the Ubima axis of the Port Harcourt-Owerri Road.
The victims were first taken to Navy War College in Ubima, where they took shelter and were also given medical attention and later moved to IGP monitoring Unit at Aluu, where they were reunited with their families.
Speaking to newsmen at the IGP Monitoring Unit’s office, some of the victims said they were brutalized and their belongings seized by the kidnappers.
They also said that the kidnappers threatened to kill them if they refused to call their relatives for ransom.
The rescued victims, including the driver of the vehicle, Uzuoma Iwuala, said it took the intervention of the security operatives to rescue them from the kidnappers’ den after some of the passengers had already paid ransom through their relatives.
They (rescued victims) claimed that the bandits collected their ATM cards from them and used them to withdraw huge cash from their bank accounts.
The commander of the IGP monitoring unit, Benneth Igwe disclosed that efforts were underway by the government to assist them to profer possible means of ending the trend of criminal activities, especially along the Port Harcourt-Owerri Road axis, vowing to go harder on the criminals.
He said: “It is our responsibility to serve humanity; when we received the distress call, we moved in, for three days we were inside the bush within that area, looking for the victims. We thank God they are here now with us now; we are making efforts to recover the bus and hand it over to the owner. One thing is sure, we will go harder on the criminals; there will be no more hiding place for them, all wickedness to humanity must end. It is just too much from them.”
