Kidnap kingpin shot dead in P’Harcourt

Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT) have killed an alleged kingpin of a gang of kidnappers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Prosper David, alias General, was shot dead in a gun battle between the gang and policemen. It was gathered that information which the operatives recovered from a kidnappers’ hideout […]

Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT) have killed an alleged kingpin of a gang of kidnappers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Prosper David, alias General, was shot dead in a gun battle between the gang and policemen.

It was gathered that information which the operatives recovered from a kidnappers’ hideout in Asiri area of Yenagoa in Bayelsa State had led to the arrest of three members of the gang.

Force spokesperson, CSP Moshood Jimoh, who confirmed the arrests and the killing, said the gang was responsible for most of the violent crimes committed in Rivers and Bayelsa states.

He said the gang was also responsible for the abduction of one Mrs. Tina Bob-Manuel on November 22, 2017, in her shop located at No.107 Nvuigwe Road, Woji, Port Harcourt, and several other kidnappings

He said following the kidnap, operatives of the IGP-IRT were able to track David who the police described as a “militant general who embraced the Federal Government’s Amnesty programme but later formed a kidnapping gang in Bayelsa State.

“The suspect relocated his family from Victory Estate, Azikoro, Yenagoa, in December 2017, to the creeks, all in a bid to avoid arrest. After about 90 days of painstaking intelligence gathering with technical assistance from TIU. The suspect was tracked to Asiri area in his new rented apartment, and on sighting the operatives, he ran into the ceiling from where he engaged the operatives in a shootout, but was killed,” Jimoh said.

He said those arrested along in connection with the abduction were identified as Johnson Denis, driver to the kidnap kingpin, Benjamin Johnson and Anthony Joshua.

Items recovered from the suspects are one of the victim’s phone, one AK47 rifle, one magazine, 26 rounds of live ammunition.