The police in Edo State say their tactical team and local vigilante groups have been combing forests in Okada, Ovia North-East local government area of the state for the killers of Felix Olajide Sowore and rescue five other kidnapped victims.
Recall that Felix Olajide Sowore, a Pharmacy student of Igbinedion University, Okada and younger brother of Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters online was shot dead by suspected kidnappers in the early hours of Saturday.
Briefing newsmen in Benin City on update on the incident, Bello Kontongs, the spokesperson of Edo Police, said “it has become necessary for us to brief the press to inform the general public that the police are on top of the situation since the killing of Felix Olajide Sowore, a pharmacy student of Igbinedion University, Okada on Saturday.
“As I speak to you the local vigilantes in that area, the police tactical team from the state command and the divisional police headquarters at Okada are all together in the bush right now combing the forests in an effort to arrest the assailants and possibly rescue five other persons that are still with the kidnappers”, he said.
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Kontongs explained that the late Sowore was not among the passengers in a bus where five persons were kidnapped.
While noting that the late student was a victim of circumstances, he added that the kidnappers shot at his vehicles when he refused to stop for them and died on the spot after being hit by one of the bullets
According to him, “he was confirmed dead by the doctors.
“Sowore Felix was not one of the occupants of the bus that some of the passengers were kidnapped. He was just someone that ran into the incident. He was coming and met the situation on ground.
“The passenger bus was actually going to Lagos from the South. The bus belongs to a private transport company. It broke down around 2 am in the early hours of Saturday, and the occupants looked for somewhere to sleep.
“That early morning, the occupants came with the intention to pack their belongings from the bus, but unknown to them, that the kidnappers have laid ambush, and immediately they opened the bus the kidnappers came out from the bush and started shooting at the bus in an attempt to create fears in them, but some of them tried to escape.”
“Some of the occupants of the bus who escaped and others we met hiding in the bush were brought to the police headquarters. We have profiled already them”, he added.
He, however, said that the command was yet to get any information from the victims’ families on any contact by the kidnappers.
