Three men are now cooling off in Police cell for alleging kidnapping and killing the Divisional Crime Officer in charge of Afam Police Division in Oyigbo, Rivers State, SP Moses Egbede.
The suspects were arrested by operatives of the Force Intelligence Bureau, FIB and Intelligence Response Team, IRT, of the Nigerian Police .
Egbede was reportedly beaten to death by the gang and his corpse thrown into a well in a bush at Paya / Agbeta community in Eleme Local Government Area after collecting a ransom from his family.
Late Egbede was abducted on 21st July 2020 but after the collection of ransom from his family on 30th July, the kidnappers refused to take calls from his family and thereafter switched off the ransom negotiation phone.
This prompted the family members to approach the FIB-Intelligence Response Team IRT to assist in the investigation.
On 5th August, Operatives of FIB-Intelligence Response Team IRT commenced an investigation and with the aid of technical support from TIU Abuja, the perpetrators were identified which led to the arrest of three of the gang members who confessed to having kidnapped and killed SP Egbede.
One of the suspects, Philemon Barrifa, a 23-year-old male from Bomu town in Gokana Local Government Area but resident in Agbeta camp in Ebubu town Eleme, confessed that the Officer was beaten to death after the collection of ransom because, during the kidnap, he dragged with them and pulled down the face mask of two of their gang members and saw their faces.
It was gathered that the kidnapping of the police officer was planned in his house and executed by himself and other gang members. He was said to have gotten the sum of #120,000 as a share of the ransom collected.
Another suspect, Okechukwu Emmanuel (aka Bike boy), a 32-year-old from Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State but resident in high tension road, Komkom Oyigbo was said to have monitored the movement of policemen and other security agents during their kidnapping operations.
It was also revealed that he was in charge of transporting their victims to their camp with his motorcycle and got #100,000 as share from the kidnap.
The third suspect, Barrisitom Gbara, a 33-year-old from Gokana but resident in Agbeta camp in Ebubu town Eleme was said to have provided the live cartridges used for the kidnapping of the police officer to the gang members through Philemon Barrifa.
Suspects are said to be cooperating with the operatives to track down other members of the gang now at large especially the gang leader who also brought the two AK47 used for the kidnapping.
