Gunmen storm Owerri High Court, Rescue Dangerous Inmate and Others
Gunmen Storm Owerri High
Court, Rescue ‘Vampire’, Notorious Kidnapping Kingpin, Others
January
28, 2017
By Amby Uneze in Owerri
The unexpected happened, Friday
morning at the Owerri high court premises as gunmen stormed the complex
in a commando style, sent people scampering for safety with sounds of
sophisticated weapons and rescued a notorious kidnapping kingpin, Henry
Chibueze, (alias Vampire) and two others.
In the ensuing melee,
about five prison officials who led the suspects to the court received gun
shots wounds and were rushed to the hospital.
The suspect who was
arrested by the Department of Security Services (DSS) in 2015 after about five
years of unsuccessful manhunt has been remanded in prison custody since the
case was charged to court.
According to an eye
witness, the gunmen laid siege on the court premises waiting for the arrival of
their target and as soon as the vehicle arrived, the suspects alighted and were
about to be led to the court room by some prison officials, they struck,
shooting sporadically in the court.
“The gunmen came into the
court premises posing like DSS operatives that came to give evidence in the
trial of Vampire until the prison officials arrived with the suspects and they
opened fire on the unsuspecting security men. It took us by surprise and funny
enough, they escaped in a Pathfinder jeep.
“How they could have beaten
all the checkpoints on either Orlu, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Umuahia and
other roads to escape is not only a surprise but scandalous. We have to mount
another manhunt for him. We suspect he would want to run outside the country”,
a security source said.
Information alleged
that even the suspect, Vampire seized the opportunity to snatch a gun from one
of the prison officials, added to the one the gunmen gave him and released
volley of shots.
THISDAY also gathered
that the gunmen must have made their way into the court premises through one of
the exit gates along Orlu road and carefully avoided the major entrance to the
court where a military armoured tank manned by military men was stationed.
The court premises is
located at the middle of the city having Imo State Government House in front,
the State Police Command, the State Prison Command, the former office of the
DSS and the residence of the Brigade Commander of 34 Brigade, Obinze around it.
When contacted, the Imo
State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Taiwo Lakanu said that even though it was not
the police that was prosecuting the case; he personally led other officers on
rescue operation to the scene of the incident when the shooting was on before
the gunmen took to their heels.
Every effort made to
contact the State Controller of Prisons or the Prisons Public Relations Officer
proved abortive as th Vampire (28) who had confessed to being involved in
several kidnappings in various parts of the country, said that he operated from
Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire, and other west African countries.
Fielding questions from
reporters, Okorocha who personally interrogated ‘Vampire’ when he was
apprehended disclosed that he had collected N110 million from one of his
victims in Rivers State and thereafter killed him.
Shedding more light
on his nefarious activities, Vampire who always look unruffled even while in
prison custody also admitted to have abducted an official of the Imo State
Environmental Transformation Commission, ENTRACO (name withheld) equally
collected N50 million, even as he similarly murdered the victim.
Furthermore, the
seemingly unrepentant Vampire said that he murdered his girlfriend for
allegedly stealing the sum of N45 million belonging to him.
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