The police in Delta said they killed two
suspected armed hoodlums after an attack on a
military patrol team and a police station.
The spokesperson for the command, Celestina
Kalu, made this known in a statement in Asaba,
the capital city on Friday.
Mr. Kalu said the deceased were suspected to
be members of the notorious Kelvin Oniarah
gang.
He explained that the gang had attacked a
military patrol team, injuring an army captain and
his colleagues on Monday in Isiokolo, near Warri.
“They fell to police firepower during a shoot-out
with the 20-member gang after the attack on the
Community Police Station.
“On Monday, October 19, 2015 at about 5.30 pm,
armed men suspected to be remnants of Kelvin
kidnap syndicate attacked 222 Battalion of
Nigeria Army patrolmen at Isiokolo and inflicted
injuries on them.
“The same armed hoodlums numbering about 20
also invaded the Police Station, Isiokolo, where
some policemen on duty resisted the criminals,
and in the ensuing gun battle, three of the
hoodlums were gunned down.”
Mr. Kalu said other members of the gang,
however, escaped in a Toyota Sienna with bullet
wounds, adding that they later abandoned the
vehicle when it got stuck in a swampy spot.
He said the injured army officer, and two of his
men were receiving treatment at an undisclosed
hospital.
The abandoned vehicle had since been recovered
and taken into police custody, while the
command had intensified effort to apprehend the
fleeing bandits.
The police also said they killed one cattle rustler
and recovered 224 cattle at Nadurku-Gwammo
village in Sumaila local government area of Kano
State.
Also, 34 sheep and goats were recovered from
gang of bandits in the area.
The Kano Commissioner of police, Muhammad
Katsina, made this known while showing the
animals to journalists at Nadurku-Gwammo
village on Friday.
Mr. Muhammad said the rustler was killed during
an exchange of fire between the Special Anti-
cattle Rustling Squad and the bandits in the
area.
“The rustler was killed during the operation we
carried out between our squad and vigilante
group in the area’’, he said.
According to Mr. Muhammad, other members of
the gang had escaped to the neighbouring
villages of Bauchi state.
He said during the operation, police recovered
one AK47 rifle and other dangerous weapons
abandoned by the rustlers in the bush.
Mr. Muhammad said the command would
continue to raid the rustlers’ hideouts with a
view to flushing them out of the state.
The recovered cattle were later handed over to
the member representing Sumaila constituency in
the state House of Assembly, Hamza Masu.
The cattle were expected to be handed over to
the committee set up by the state government to
return them to the rightful owners.
(NAN)