23rd October, 2015
The Police in Delta said they killed two suspected armed hoodlums after an attack on a military patrol team and a police station.
Spokesperson for the command, DSP Celestina Kalu, made this known in a statement in Asaba on Friday.
The statement said the deceased were suspected to be members of the notorious Kelvin Oniarah gang.
The statement 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.”
Kalu said other members of the gang, however, escaped in a Toyota Siena with bullet wounds, adding that they later abandoned the vehicle when it got stuck in a swampy spot.
It stated that the injured army officer, and two of his men were receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.
The abandoned vehicle has since been recovered and taken into police custody, while the command has 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.
Commissioner of police, Mr Muhammad Katsina, made this known while showing the animals to journalists at Nadurku-Gwammo village on Friday.
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 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.
Muhammad said the command would continue to raid the rustlers’ hideouts with a view to flushing them out of the state.
NAN reports that the recovered cattle were later handed over to the member representing Sumaila constituency in the state House of Assembly, Alhaji 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.