A combined team of soldiers and policemen drafted from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, have stormed a hideout of a gang of kidnappers at Umuchuchi, Aba and arrested about 15 suspects believed to be behind the killing and roasting of four policemen last Tuesday in Aba.

Among those arrested were two policemen and two members of the ‘Bakassi Boys’.

Suspected kidnappers had set ablaze the four policemen, less than 24 hours after the Anti-kidnap squad set up by the Abia State government swung into action.

The four policemen were burnt beyond recognition and another critically wounded following an attack on them by the kidnappers at Ogbo Hill, Aba.

A witness told Daily Champion that an attempt by the hoodlums to kidnap the General Manager of 7Up Bottling Company (an expatriate) was foiled by the police.

Meanwhile, the Abia House of Assembly yesterday called for the immediate redeployment of the Commissioner of Police in the state,

Mr Edgar Nanakumo, and other key officers in the Police Command.

The resolution followed a motion moved by Chief Uzor Azubuike, representing Aba Central, who drew the attention of the House to the high rate of insecurity, kidnappings and killings of civilians in Aba.

The Speaker, Chief Agwu Agwu, who read out the resolution, urged the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mike Okiro to redeploy Nanakumo, his deputy, Assistants, Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers (DPOs).

He also urged Okiro to declare Abia ``a security disaster area,’’ in view of the fact that the police had ``failed to protect themselves, not to talk of the residents of Aba’’.

Agwu appealed to the IG to deploy honest and dedicated policemen, who could rise up to the challenge of crime wave in the state.

The lawmakers decried the rate of kidnappings, killings of both policemen and civilians in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a policeman was recently killed by suspected kidnappers in Isialangwa North Local government Area of the state.

Last month, the Federal Government donated an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) to the state government to boost its crime control efforts.

A very hig rank police officer in the state, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Daily Champion that after the incident of Tuesday when kidnappers set four policemen ablaze after shooting them to death that a crack team of police men was put together to fish out the perpetrators of the act.

He said following that, an intelligence report directed them to Umuchuchi camp of the kidnappers, which was unknown to the police before then.

He said in order not to jeopardise the operation, and also the seriousness police authorities attached to it, it was decided that soldiers and policemen from outside the state be brought in to execute the operation.

According to him when the soldiers arrived the hideout the kidnappers were taken unawares and the soldiers rounded them up, including those in captivity.

The police officer said as the soldiers and policemen were dishing out orders, they struck some kidnap victims who out of fear and confusion began to run helter skelter. He said two of them were hit by bullets and died.

The source also said the identity of the owner of the Mercedes Benz, one of the vehicles used in Tuesday’s attack on police men, was now with the police.

When contacted on phone Thursday morning on the State Commissioner of police, Mr. Edgar Tam Nanakumo, said, "I will not confirm anything. I have been in Anambra Statte since yester (Wednesday)".

As a fall out of the Tuesday’s tragedy, a team of police men had burnt down over 25 shops along the Seven Up Road, especially those directly opposite the Seven Up Bottling Company where the four police men were roasted after they were shot dead.

When Daily Champion visited the area Thursday the place looked deserted while some shop owners were seen loitering and lamenting their fate. They wondered why they should be made to suffer over a matter they were innocent of.

It was however, gathered that the police out of annoyance burnt the shops because they claimed that armed robbers and kidnappers hid in those shops to monitor movement of the workers of the company.

Meanwhile, commercial motorcycle operators, who were banned by the state government, joined by some traders in Ariaria International Market, Aba, had clashed with police at the Enyimba Filling Station junction along the Aba Port Harcourt Expressway.

The Okada riders were protesting their ban, even as they complained that the two days of notice the state government gave to them was not enough to look for other means of livelihood.

Police men and soldiers are parading the major streets in the city impounding motorcycles on the roads. At the Aba Area Command where the impounded motorcycles were kept thousands of them were seen when Daily Champion visited the area.

Also the government of Abia State had in its desperation to stem the soaring crime wave bedeviling the God’s Own State banned private tailors from sewing uniforms of members of the Armed Forces or risk arrest and prosecution.

In a press release signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Sam Hart said, the decision became necessary because of security reports that some tailors in the state particularly in Aba engaged in sewing police and army uniforms for criminals.

The statement reads in inter alia,

"The attention of Abia State government has been drawn to the fact that some tailors in the state engage in sewing military uniforms. Government has also been reliably informed that these tailors also make available these uniforms for criminals who in turn wear them and disguise as policemen and soldiers while carrying out their nefarious operations.

"Government has agreed with the Abia State Police Command and military formations in the state that the sewing of uniforms of members of the Armed Forces in Abia State will henceforth be carried out by duly certified police and army tailors. Consequently, government has prohibited private tailors in Abia State from sewing uniforms of members of the Armed Forces.