Police officers in Akwa Ibom have freed 28 kidnapped fisherman from the state.
A five-person gang kidnapped the fisherman on Thursday in the state’s Akwakpa, Uruan Local Government Area.
The victims were saved by marine officers assigned to the command, according to Olatoye Durosinmi, the state commissioner of police, who made this information public to journalists on Friday at the command headquarters in Uyo.
The CP said: “The 28 men and women you see here are the people rescued by police marine officers. The victims at about 1800hrs yesterday (Thursday) were attacked on the sea by a five-man gang of pirates. They seized their boat and put them where they would not come out.
“These men of the underworld will pretend to be fishermen and we’ve actually caught five of them before and they are in detention. The long arm of the law will soon catch up with them.
“The gang who pretended to be fishermen bumped into them and asked them to get into the boat. Fortunately, one of them had the phone number of the local government chairman who later alerted me. The usual practice is that they go out on Thursday and come back on a Sunday.
“The detachment of the marine officers is still trailing the suspects as I’m speaking with you.”
