Two male suspects have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a pregnant woman in Enugu.
THE WHISTLER gathered that the pregnant woman, identified as Chinwendu Igwe, was delivered of a baby boy at a hospital upon her rescue by the operatives of the state police command.
The arrest of the suspects was carried out by police operatives of the Enugu State Command that “acted on intelligence-guided discreet investigations,” according to the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe.
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Ndukwe said the heavily pregnant woman was kidnapped along Eke-Egede road in Udi Local Government Area of the state around 9:45pm on April 22, 2024.
Quoting him, “The arrest was after the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, CP Kanayo Uzuegbu, swiftly led a crack team of police operatives, complemented by the neigbourhood watch group and Forest Guards to rescue the woman on April 23, 2024, around noon, barely 24 hours after her abduction.”
He said preliminary investigations into the incident revealed that “the woman, unaided and for reasons yet to be ascertained, knowing that she was within her expected period of delivery, embarked on a journey by land with two of her children from Lagos to her paternal home in Egede, Udi LGA.
“She got to 9th Mile around 9pm. Lacking a convenient means of conveyance, she boarded a commercial motorcycle, with the motorcyclist electing to transport her and her two children.”
It was gathered that on their way, the abductors attacked them, and whisked the woman into the forest, leaving the rider and the children behind.
Swift efforts by a team of police operatives from Ezinze Police Division of the command could not save the woman immediately as she had been taken into the bush before the operatives arrived, the police said.
Meanwhile, the state commissioner of police has ordered the manhunt of other members of the kidnapping gang at large. He however described as “total misinformation media reports alleging that the woman was on her way to the hospital for delivery and that the motorcyclist rescued the two children”.
The CP enjoined media houses to always maintain objectivity when reporting security information to avoid misinforming the unsuspecting public.