Nigeria’s special joint military force has killed a suspected kidnapper blamed for a series of abductions of workers and other crimes in a southern state, an army spokesman said Monday.
“Obioma Nwankwo, otherwise known as Osisikankwu, was killed during a shootout between his gang and the JTF (military force),” Lieutenant Colonel Musa Sagir told AFP.
He said the military was on the trail of fleeing members of the gang that has terrorised southern Abia State and its surrounding area in recent months. Abia police spokesman Geofrey Ogbonna said a cache of arms and ammunitions was also recovered from the gang after the shooting.
“The man was shot dead Sunday afternoon during a gun duel with the special military squad drafted to the area since September. The soldiers had laid an ambush for the gang in a forest around Oboekwe area of the state,” he said.
“Some weapons, including several AK 47 guns, RPGs, general purpose machine guns and RGP bombs with 59 rounds of 7.62 mm special were recovered from the fleeing members of the gang,” Ogbonna told AFP.
He said jubilant residents of the area danced in the streets after receiving the news of Osisikankwu’s killing.
The police spokesman said Osisikankwu was behind the September abduction of 16 school children from their bus at the outskirts of the state’s commercial capital Aba, the first such hijacking in the country.
The bus hijack sparked outrage, and President Goodluck Jonathan ordered security agencies to smash the kidnap gangs.
Security forces later free the children unharmed without paying the 20 million naira (130,000 dollars, 95,650 euros) ransom demanded by the kidnappers.
Kidnappings have turned into big business in the Niger Delta and the southeast, with gangs often demanding large ransoms from their victims’ families.