Kaduna Police Foil Kidnap Attempt, Rescue Eight Victims

The operatives who were attached to Buruku Police Division intercepted a large number of bandits while on a routine patrol between Udawa and Buruku villages along the Kaduna-Birnin-Gwari Highway.

According to the spokesman for the command, Mohammed Jalige, the bandits forcefully stopped three commercial vehicles, whisked away the passengers, and headed to the forest.

He said the police operatives on sighting the gang of criminals immediately engaged them in a fierce chase amid an exchange of fire.

In the process, Jalige narrated, the bandits fled into the forest with varying degrees of bullet wounds, abandoning the eight kidnapped victims behind.

He stated that one of the victims sustained injury and was taken to a hospital for treatment, while the rescued victims were moved to the police station in Buruku where they were profiled, documented, and escorted to their destinations.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state assured residents that the command would not spare concerted efforts in ensuring the sanity of the Kaduna-Birnin-Gwari Road.

Bandits have renewed attacks in recent times in parts of Kaduna and some other states where clergymen, especially Catholic priests have been targets.

One of the latest of such attacks was the abduction of Reverend Father John Cheitnum and Reverend Father Donatus Cleopas on Friday last week in Jere Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State.

Their abduction came barely two weeks after another priest, Reverend Father Emmanuel Silas, was kidnapped by bandits from the parish rectory of Saint Charles Catholic Church, Zamina in Kauru LGA.

Days after their kidnap, the Chancellor of Kafanchan Catholic Diocese, Reverend Father Emmanuel Okolo, said the decomposing body of Cheitnum was discovered on Tuesday.

Reverend Father Cleopas, on his part, was said to have been released by the bandits after an undisclosed amount of money was paid to them as ransom.