Date Published: 08/03/10

Army General kills kidnapper

A gang of kidnappers received a huge shock as their target, who turned out to be an Army general shot and killed one of them near Aba in Abia State.

J.O.J Okoloagu, a retired general was ambushed by a gang of armed kidnappers at the Alaoji area of Aba on his way to Port Harcourt in the company of his orderly and the driver.

Mr Okoloagu narrated his ordeal at a hospital where he is receiving treatment for gunshot wounds he sustained during the attack. He said the kidnappers blocked his vehicle and started firing into the air while one of them demobilised his vehicle by blasting the four tyres. One of the kidnappers then tried to drag him out of his car not knowing that he was a soldier.

“He thought I was a civilian and immediately he let his hands off the trigger, I pumped the whole six rounds into his chest,” he said.

Mr Okoloagu said, in retaliation, the kidnappers shot and wounded him along with his orderly - the orderly was shot in the hand. But sensing that their mission had been jeopardised with one of them down, Mr Okoloagu said they fled, after commandeering a vehicle with which they took their slain colleague away.

He added that he managed to escape into the bush with his orderly in the confusion that followed but regretted that his driver was critically wounded and is now in coma at a hospital.

Mr Okoloagu also called on the federal government to get soldiers involved in efforts aimed at checking the insecurity by rehabilitating abandoned army
barracks in the South-East zone. When contacted, Ali Okechukwu, the Abia State Police command Public Relations Officer said he can not immediately confirm the incident.

courtesy NEXT