The Enugu State Police Command with assistance from the State Forest Guard and Neighbourhood Watch Group on Sunday rescued four kidnapped victims in a forest at Aishi-Ette in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of the state.

A statement by the command’s spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, on Sunday night, said that the victims, two males and two females, were rescued after a fierce gun battle with their abductors on Sunday.

Ndukwe said that the kidnappers after sustaining, varying degrees of gunshot wounds, abandoned the victims and escaped leading to the rescue of the victims.

According to the statement, one of the victims sustained a gunshot wound in his left thigh during the gun battle.

The statement read in part, “The victim was moved to the hospital immediately for medical attention and is responding to treatment and in stable condition; while others and all the operatives returned unscathed.

“The victims were reported to have been kidnapped at Umuopu village, along Ette/Ogugu Road, on 23/06/2023 at about 9.30 pm, on their way to Obollo-Afor, Enugu State from Ankpa, Kogi State, with the hoodlums said to have demanded a ransom of N10,000,000.00 for each of them.”

Ndukwe, quoted the commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, to have commended the team for acting on the strategies devised and adhering to his earlier order on the massive deployment of personnel and operational resources of the command, to contain criminal cases of abduction/kidnapping in the state.

The command’s spokesman said that the CP charged all the operatives of the command to sustain the onslaught against criminal elements, reiterating that the police will never rest on their oars until the state is rid of criminals.

“To this end, the CP has urged members of the public, especially owners of medical facilities, to report anyone sighted with gunshot injuries to the nearest Police Station for necessary action, in accordance with the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act 2017,” the statement added.