Operation Zenda — a combined team of Police, Army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps — says it has arrested two kidnappers on Tuesday in Makurdi.

The Special Adviser to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue, Lt. Col. Paul Hemba, told journalists on Friday in Makurdi that the kidnappers were arrested on August 9 in Makurdi.

Mr Hemba disclosed that the kidnappers gang was a four-man squad that specialised in kidnapping only women.

“There is a law in place in the state which clearly states that any building that is used as a kidnappers’ den should be demolished and we are going to demolish their den which is situated on Makurdi-Gboko road.

“The state has zero for kidnapping activities, as such even if the other two are on the run they will be apprehended soon,” Mr Hemba said.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police in Benue, Wale Abass, disclosed that his men pursued them and in the process of running to escape, one of their phones fell down.

Mr Abass said that it was the phone that they used as a lead to trap them.

The commissioner said that the kidnappers carried out three operations since they started operating, stressing that they succeeded in only two and one was unsuccessful.

“They collected more than N1 million from their first victim and N1 million from their second victim,” Mr Abass said.

Husband to their first victim, Ibrahim Anor, lamented that it was in his house that they came and whisked his wife away.

Mr Anor said that it was in November 2021 that the incident happened, lamenting that they kept his wife with them for nine days and released her on the tenth day after collecting a ransom.

The second in command of the gang, Solomon Iorver, who said that he was 25 years, disclosed that they collected a ransom of N500,000 from the family of their first victim while the family of their second victim paid them N1 million.

(NAN)