……Arrest three suspected Black Axe members in separate operation
The Delta State Police Command has uncovered suspected criminal hideouts in Ughelli North and Ethiope East Local Government Areas, recovering an AK-47 rifle, two pump-action guns, 55 rounds of live ammunition and seven live cartridges.
Three suspected members of the Black Axe confraternity were also arrested during the separate intelligence-led operations carried out by operatives of the Commissioner of Police Special Assignment Team (CP-SAT) and the Quick Response Squad (QRS).
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Bright Edafe, who disclosed this yesterday in a statement, said the operations were part of the command’s intensified offensive against kidnapping, armed robbery and cultism in the state.
In the first operation, CP-SAT operatives, acting on credible intelligence, stormed a suspected hideout of kidnappers and armed robbers in a bush around Uduere Community, Ughelli North Local Government Area, at about 9:00 p.m. on October 4.
Edafe said the suspects opened fire on the operatives when they arrived at the hideout, resulting in an exchange of gunfire.
According to him, the suspects eventually fled into the bush after they were unable to withstand the police response.
A search of the hideout subsequently yielded an AK-47 rifle, two AK-47 magazines, 55 rounds of live ammunition, a pump-action gun and seven live cartridges.
Also recovered were a knife, a cutlass and a mobile phone.
The police spokesman said a manhunt had been launched for the fleeing suspects, stressing that efforts were ongoing to track them down.
In another operation carried out in the early hours of October 5, QRS operatives stormed a location along Ekrakra Road, Kokori, Ethiope East Local Government Area, following intelligence that suspected members of the Black Axe confraternity were allegedly holding a meeting there.
Edafe said the suspects took to their heels on sighting the police, but three persons were apprehended.
They were identified as Uzubu Ufuoma, 33; Solomon Ovie, 27; and Remember Emuere, 31.
The suspects, he said, subsequently led investigators to an abandoned building at Okodjerhe Village, Kokori, where an automatic pump-action gun allegedly belonging to the group was recovered.
The three suspects remain in police custody, while the command is intensifying efforts to apprehend other suspected members who escaped from the scene.
The Commissioner of Police, Delta State Command, CP Samuel E. Erale, warned kidnappers, armed robbers and cultists operating in the state that the command would continue to hunt down criminal elements and dismantle their operational bases.
Erale said the police would sustain intelligence-led operations to disrupt criminal activities and bring those involved to justice.
He, however, urged residents to remain vigilant and promptly provide the police with credible information about suspicious persons, movements and activities in their communities.
The latest operations underscore the command’s renewed push against armed criminal networks and cult-related activities in Delta State, with the police assuring residents that efforts would be sustained to deny criminals safe havens across the state.
