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Hunters manning the Okene-Lokoja route have rescued five kidnap victims after a gunfight with kidnappers at a forest along the route.
The rescue came barely one week after the hunters apprehended three suspected kidnappers during a shootout in a forest in the Irekpeni-Osara communities, along the same road, after the hunters stormed the kidnappers’ hideout in the area.
One of the hunters, who preferred anonymity, said the incident happened on Friday around 9:12pm when the hunters stormed the kidnappers’ hideout in the area.
He said the rescued victims were travelling from Lokoja to Benin when they were abducted near Osara village, along the highway, adding that the hunters, upon receiving the distress call immediately stormed the kidnappers’ hideout and engaged them in a shootout.
“Unfortunately during the gun duel with the kidnappers, one among the five rescued victims sustained bullet wounds on the leg but has been taken to the hospital for treatment,” he said.
According to him, some of the kidnappers escaped with bullet wounds during the exchange of fire with the hunters, even as he said the hunters are on the trail of the kidnappers.
The chairman of Okehi Local Government Area of Kogi State, Abdulraheem Ohiare, confirmed the rescue of the five kidnapped people by hunters in the area.
He said one among the five rescued victims sustained bullet wounds from the exchange of gunfire with the kidnappers, saying the victim is responding to treatment at a private hospital.
He assured residents and travellers plying the highway of government protection of lives and property.
The spokesman of the Kogi State Police Command, CSP Williams Ovye Aya, was yet to pick calls or reply to a text message sent him about the incident.
