Ogun: One rescued as police kill five in gun battle with kidnappers

• They were however overwhelmed and subdued by the superior firepower of the police officers during the gun battle that lasted for about an hour

At least five kidnappers met their end on Thursday in Ogun state during an intense and fierce gun battle with police officers in the state.

The police stormed the kidnappers enclave in a forest in Odogbolu Local Government Area of the state on a mission to rescue a poultry manager, Tunde Osifowokan, in Idowa.

On getting to the location where Osifowokan was being held by his abductors, the kidnappers engage the police in a shoot-out

They were however overwhelmed and subdued by the superior firepower of the police officers during the gun battle that lasted for about an hour.

Osifowokan was, on Monday, kidnapped by heavily armed masked gunmen in a poultry farm he manages for his elder brother.

But the Commissioner of Police in the state, Abiodun Alamutu, vowed to go after the kidnappers and rescue the victim.

He disclosed that the police were already closing in on the kidnappers, as the police had immediately started trailing the armed gang since the incident was reported.

Giving an update on the incident on Thursday, Alamutu said the poultry manager, Tunde Osifowokan, was rescued unhurt after the gun battle.

“At about 4:00am on Thursday morning, our anti-kidnapping unit stormed the kidnappers’ hideout at Odogbolu forest along Sagamu-Benin expressway.

“The kidnappers engaged the squad in a fierce gun battle during which five of them, out of about eight, were neutralised while the rest escaped with bullet wounds.

The police also listed exhibits recovered from the kidnappers as a cash sum of N1,185, 070 suspected to be part of the ransom the kidnappers had collected from other victims.

“Other exhibits are one sword, cellphones, substances suspected to be hard drugs, charms, empty shells of AK-47rifleand ststicks.”

According to Alamutu, the corpses of the kidnappers have been deposited at the morgue of a General Hospital.

Alamutu, however, added that the command will not rest until the fleeing suspects are brought to book, insisting that, “criminals who are hellbent on testing the strong resolve of the police in the state will have themselves to blame.”