Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have neutralised one suspected kidnapper while three others were arrested with various degrees of gunshot injury.
The police team also recovered one AK-47 rifle, one double barrel locally made gun, 18 rounds of ammunition and a suspected stolen GLK Benz from the suspects.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the incident occurred on Sunday at a hotel in Agbarho, the Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state.
Police sources said following reports of kidnapping and armed robbery operations in Ughelli, Warri and environs, the state Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations), Johnson Adenola, mandated all divisional police officers in the command to gather intelligence and tackle the menace.
It was gathered that around 1pm on Sunday, the command received information that members of an armed robbery gang that snatched one AK47 rifle from a police officer and also kidnapped and killed one Godspower Emmanuel after collecting N400,000 ransom, were seen at a hotel in Agbarho.
The Divisional Police Officer, Aladja Division, CSP Aliyu Shaba, reportedly mobilised and led detectives to the area in search of the hoodlums.
The suspects, who sighted the policemen from their hideout, were said to have opened fire on them.
In the ensuing gun duel, one of the suspects simply identified as Felix alias ‘OBJ’ was shot and later confirmed dead at the hospital, while three other suspects namely Stephen Precious (19), Godstime Sunday (28) and Apene Prince (28) were arrested with various degrees of bullet injury.
Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, listed exhibits recovered from the suspects as including one AK 47 rifle with breech no. 19617, 18 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, one English double barrel gun, 11 Android phones, two button phones, one long knife, one suspected stolen white coloured GLK Mercedes Benz with number plate YAB 733 BK, two bottles of codeine and two wraps of a substance suspected to be Indian hemp.
