Police neutralize suspected kidnapper in Akwa Ibom shootout

A suspected kidnapper, identified as John Akpan, was shot dead during a gun battle with operatives of the Akwa Ibom State Police Command on Saturday, according to an official statement released on Monday.

Confirming the incident, the Command’s spokesperson, DSP Timfon John, said the operation was based on credible intelligence. Officers had tracked Akpan, a native of Ikot Umiang in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area, when he reportedly opened fire on the police team, prompting a swift response that led to his fatal injury.

A firearm was recovered from the suspect at the scene. The police assured the public that efforts are ongoing to apprehend other members of the gang and maintain peace and security across the state.

“The other gang members fled the scene. A locally made pistol, one live cartridge, and one expanded cartridge were recovered at the hideout. Akpan, who sustained bullet injuries, was taken to a hospital where he was confirmed dead,” Ms John said.

The police said operatives acted on intelligence that a group of kidnappers it had been monitoring had returned to the area.

According to the statement, the gang members had been terrorising residents of the area from 2020 to 2023 and were also alleged to be involved in the kidnapping of a church founder in 2023.

The area has been a kidnapper’s den before relative peace returned through the combined efforts of the security agents and community leaders.

In June last year, gunmen in the area kidnapped a retired secondary school principal, Ezekiel Paul, at his home in Ikot Abasi Akpan, a few kilometres from where the suspect was killed. He was released after a ransom was paid.

Residents of Ekpene Ukpa Road – stretching from Ekparakwa in Oruk Anam Local Government Area through Mkpat Enin Local Government Area to Etinan Local Government Area had been living in fear due to the activities of kidnappers in the area.

Gunmen have, within the last four years, carried out a series of abductions, collected huge ransoms, and on some occasions killed their victims.

Within three months in 2022, gunmen abducted four high-profile persons, including two clerics and a medical doctor, and a party chieftain in the area. All four kidnappings happened less than five kilometres apart.

In February 2022, gunmen invaded a cottage hospital in Ikot Ekpaw, Mkpat Enin LGA, and abducted a medical doctor, Felix Ekpo.

The Punch newspaper reported that the kidnappers stormed the hospital in the morning and made away with the doctor in his car.

Two months later – in April 2022 – gunmen abducted John Okoriko, a televangelist and founder of Solid Rock Kingdom Church, and demanded N100 million in ransom.

Mr Okoriko was abducted when gunmen invaded the headquarters of his church in his village, Ibekwe Akpanya, in Mkpat Enin LGA, PREMIUM TIMES reported.

In May same year, gunmen kidnapped Alphonsus Eboh, a Catholic priest in the same community, Ikot Abasi Akpan, and demanded N100 million as ransom.

Then, the chairperson of the parish council, Cletus Okodi, told PREMIUM TIMES that the priest was kept in an unidentified forest in the area.

Mr Okodi, himself a kidnap victim, did not disclose the amount the church paid before the priest was released.

Still in May 2022, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Sylvester Ntefre, was shot dead by gunmen. The gunmen invaded his residence in Ekparakwa, along Abak-Ikot Abasi Road, in a black SUV and shot continually to scare neighbours before abducting the man.

In March 2024, a liquor distributor, who was kidnapped at his office in Ekparakwa, died in captivity, the Sun newspaper reported. Where his kidnapping took place is meters away from where Mr Ntefre was later abducted in May,

Malcahy Ufot, a retired broadcaster with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria who was kidnapped by gunmen in October 2023 but released after he became unconscious in captivity, died the next day at a hospital in Uyo.

(PremiumTimes)