The Police Public Relations Officer in Rivers State Command, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, has said police are doing its best to free nine passengers kidnapped along the Elele-Owerri road on Saturday.
The Police imagemaker who stated this in a telephone interview on Tuesday said the kidnapped victims would be freed soon.
DSP Omoni said: “We are doing our utmost best to get them out… They will be out”.
The passengers were kidnapped at the weekend along Elele-Owerri route on their way to Port-Harcourt.
DSP Omoni said there were 16 passengers on the bus when it was attacked saying that seven passengers escaped from the abductors while nine were taken by them into a forest.
The driver of the bus reportedly escaped at the time of the attack.
Meanwhile, the police imagemaker has said the Command would increase security patrol along Elele-Owerri road, East-West road and other flashpoints as the Command expects to receive a number of security patrol vans from Rivers State Government, adding that the police will be more “effective and efficient” in carrying out their responsibilities.
It will be recalled that the new Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Mustapha Dandaura, promised to declare total war against violent crimes in Rivers State.
CP Dandaura who made the pledge at his maiden press briefing said Rivers State was strategic to the country’s economic well-being and required that “so much needs to be put in” to fight security challenges in the state.
He said: “Let me state clearly that I am here in the state to fight crime to a standstill in line with the IGP’s directive of cascading the Operation Puff Adder in all the Commands across the country. Though the Operation has not been fully operational in the state but suffice it to say that I have the mandate to be in the state to fight the monsters of cultism, kidnapping, armed robbery, murder and pipeline vandalism bedeviling the state”.
He further said: “I shall tackle these crimes headlong and bring them to a tolerable level. Rivers State will no longer be conducive for criminals. Therefore, they have the option of relocating, repenting or face the full wrath of the law. I promise to declare a total war against violent crimes in the state. My arrival will see the decimation of the criminals on the East/West Road and that of Elele-Owerri Road”.
He paraded 15 suspected criminals including kidnappers and armed robbers at Police Headquarters on Moscow Road, Port-Harcourt few days after assuming office.
