Kidnapping: Police kill gang leader terrorising Ogoni community

The Police in Rivers on Monday said they had killed “a notorious gang leader’’, Linus Lebari, 35, popularly known as Bobby/Devil, terrorising Ogoni area of the state.

The command’s spokesman, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, in Port Harcourt that operatives from the Bori Police Station, in a coordinated operation, trailed the deceased and his gang to their hideout in a forest at Okwale in the boundary between Rivers and Abia.

He said that when the hoodlums noticed irregular movements around their camp, they started shooting randomly.

Omoni said the police returned fire and fatally wounded one of them, identified as Linus Lebari, the leader of the kidnap gang.

“The gang is responsible for all the attacks on the Ogoni axis of the East/West road and whose gang has killed over 30 people in Khana and Gokana Local Government Areas after collecting ransom,’’ he said in a statement.

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According to Omoni, in the wake of the operation, two policemen sustained gunshot wounds and are currently responding to treatment.

“One locally made pistol and some cartridges were recovered, and efforts are on to arrest other gang members who fled with gunshot wounds,’’ he added.

Omoni quoted the Commissioner of Police in Rivers, Mr Mustapha Dandaura, as assuring the public that onslaught against banditry in the state would continue until all criminal elements were eliminated.

He urged the people assist the police by providing credible information using the following numbers: 08032003514 and 08028915462. (NAN)