Police Gun Down Four Suspected Kidnappers In Edo

The Police in Edo State said yesterday they have killed four
kidnappers following a car chase where the hostage escaped, in the latest
abduction in a region home to Africa’s biggest oil industry.

Senior civil servant, Benson Ojoto was kidnapped earlier
this month in Delta State, one of the three states that make up the bulk of the
Niger Delta. He was freed on Sunday, police said.

“Luckily, the man escaped while the gang headed to Edo State
with his car. We trailed them to Benin City where we engaged and gunned down
four of them. One escaped with gunshot wounds,” Delta State police spokesman
Charles Muka said.

Muka said they strongly suspected the gang was behind the
kidnapping this month of Delta State Judge, Marcel Okoh, who has since been
released.

Criminal gangs kidnapping for ransom have blighted Africa’s
second largest economy for years, with the vast majority of people abducted
Nigerians, although foreign oil workers have also been targets.

Violence and crime in the oil-producing Niger Delta pushes
up the cost of doing business.

Shell spent almost 40 per cent of its global security budget
in Nigeria between 2007 and 2009, according to an oil industry watchdog.