Men of the Imo State Police command killed two suspected kidnappers who have terrorised the Owerri and its environs recently.

The two men identified as Ikechukwu Edwin from Anam in Anambra State and one Ekene operating in Mercedes 190 with Lagos Registration number BQ 295 AGL were shot dead by men of the Eagle Squad on Wednesday night on MCC road on their way to kidnap Mr. Kennedy Chukwuonye, managing director of Owerri-based CODUC Construction company in his house at Urata Housing Estate. The third member of the gang identified as Obinna, alias Adada reportedly escaped into the bush when the police confronted them.

State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aloysius Okorie, who confirmed the incident to Daily Champion in a text message however, said he was in Abuja and referred our correspondent to officer in Charge of Eagle Squad in the command Mr. Bangs Kopshella, a Chief Superintendent of Police.

Narrating how his men overpowered the gang, Kopshella said that the three men armed with two fully loaded pistols, a double barrel gun and single barrel gun drove into the house of Chukwuonye and when they noticed that his Jeep car was not parked there, they drove out of the area and decided to be hovering around to monitor when he would come in. At last, they parked their car on the road close to Chukwuma Nwoha Street junction. A security man in Chukwuonye’s house who suspected the gang copied the number of their vehicle and quickly telephoned his master about the strange visitors.

The contractor alerted the police who arrived immediately in his house. Chukwuonye left his sport utility vehicle (SUV) Jeep some where and returned to his house in another car in company of some police men. Shortly, a driver who was properly briefed was asked to bring back his SUV Jeep. The kidnappers on sighting the Jeep, believed that Chukwuonye was inside and quickly gave it a chase. A team of well armed policemen who kept a distance from the SUV Jeep immediately confronted the gang. One of them on the steering got off the car and escaped into the bush while the other two who decided to fight the operatives were gunned.

The senior police officer however said his men are on the trail of the fleeing member of the gang who is suspected to have fled to Onitsha.