By Anayo Okoli
Umuahia – The State Security Services, SSS, in Abia State has arrested five persons in connection with last month’s kidnapping of a Catholic Reverend Sister, Chikaodi Elendu, at Ozuabam, Arochukwu local government area of the state.
The Reverend Sister was abducted on April 13, alongside one Miss Ogochukwu Osueke, an SSS 3 student of Kolping Academy, Ozuabam.
Meanwhile, both the Reverend Sister and the student had been released on payment of N150, 000 ransoms, after the kidnappers brought down their initial N3 million demand.
All three (names witheld) were paraded before newsmen.
They will be arraigned in court today, according to the SSS Command.
Parading the suspects, Abia State Director of SSS, Mr. Mathew Obodoechi, disclosed that the suspects were members of an eight-man gang of criminals. He said they were arrested at different locations, and that three members of the gang were still at large. He assured that his men were closing in on them.
According to Obodoechi, the gang members, who voluntarily confessed their involvement in the kidnapping of the Reverend Sister, also confessed their involvement in other kidnapping and armed robbery cases, including the abduction of one Dr. Mmeregini of Mmeregini Hospital at Ohafia, as well as the robbery attack at the Catholic Church, Ozuabam.
Briefing journalists shortly before parading the suspects, Obodoechi explained that “the kidnappers initially demanded for three million Naira ransom but later collected N150, 000, as a result of the pressure that the Command mounted on them.”
According to him, one foreign made 8-round Pump Action gun was recovered from the gang.
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