One of the alleged leaders of a kidnap
syndicate that abducted Samuel Okpara, a Port Harcourt-based medical doctor,
was, on Friday, killed during a gun duel with security operatives at the Obite
Waterfront in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The late Okpara, who was kidnapped
from his hospital in Abuloma, Port Harcourt, last week, died in the hands of
his abductors on Thursday, even as his colleagues took to the streets on
Friday, protesting the incessant kidnapping of members in the state.
Confirming the death of the
kidnappers’ gang leader, the state Police Commissioner, Mr Dan Bature, told the
protesting doctors who marched to his office that his men engaged the hoodlums
in a shootout at about 5:00a.m. on Friday.
He said a police corporal was
injured during the gun duel that lasted several minutes, promising that efforts
had been intensified to rescue victims who are still held hostage by
kidnappers.
“The police, on Friday, at about
5:00 a.m. killed one of their (kidnappers’) gang leaders. The kidnappers
injured one of our men during the shootout. We trailed them to their hideout
and a shootout ensued,” Bature said.
Meanwhile, members of the Rivers
State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) have declared a
seven-day mourning period in honour of Dr Okpara, who died five days after he
was kidnapped in the den of his abductors.
Rivers NMA chairman, Dr Furo
Green, said Okpara was forcefully taken from his office by gunmen last week,
only for his remains to be found at a cassava farm in Borokiri, five days
after.
Green further revealed that four
medical doctors hadalso received kidnap threats from unknown persons, adding
that medical practitioners were no longer safe to practice in the state.
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner
for Health, Dr Sampson Parker, has said the recent spate of kidnapping of
medical doctors operating in the state had become a matter of great
concern.
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