The Anambra State Police Command has arrested members of a criminal gang linked to the attack on the convoy of former Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, with two suspects killed during a gun battle. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Tochukwu Ikenga, said operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Awkuzu, acting on credible intelligence, ambushed a five-man gang at the Enugwu Agidi junction. According to him, the suspects, believed to be armed robbers and cultists with links to a proscribed secessionist group, engaged the operatives upon sighting them. “During the exchange, which lasted about two hours, two of the armed suspects sustained fatal gunshot injuries, while three others escaped with varying degrees of injuries,” Ikenga stated.
He added that the operatives recovered one T.06 rifle, two pump-action guns, 24 rounds of T.06 ammunition, 15 live cartridges, assorted criminal charms, a cult red beret, and a black Toyota Highlander vehicle. Ikenga disclosed that one of the suspects, before dying, confessed that members of the gang were involved in the earlier attack on Senator Ngige’s convoy and admitted to being part of the strike squad of the Vikings confraternity on a retaliatory mission. Commending the operatives, the Commissioner of Police, Ikioye Orutugu, directed intensified efforts to arrest the fleeing suspects and urged hospitals to treat individuals with gunshot injuries while promptly reporting such cases to the nearest police station.