The Nigerian Police Force has said that it has killed a wanted armed robber and kidnapper, Henry Chibueze, also known as ‘Vampire’.

Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, said the suspect was killed by personnel of the Inspector General of Police’s, IGP, Intelligence Response Team, IRT, in the wee hours of Thursday.

He narrated that the operation took place “in Omu Awa forest, Ikwere L.G.A of Rivers State.”

The Police also arrested five other members of the kidnap gang as well as recovered caches of arms and ammunition from the gang.

The arrested suspects include: Obinna Ela, Arinze Abecheta, Chukwu Ebuka, Samuel Ugochukwu and Clifford Aheana.

According to the Police spokesman, the gang is “responsible for so many kidnap and armed robbery attacks in Imo, Abia, Rivers, Delta and other States in the South-South/South-East where several innocent people were killed by the gang.”

He added that “they will be paraded and charged to court on completion of investigation.”

It would be recalled that the slain kidnap suspect, also called Vampire,had been arrested by the police and charged to court.On January 27, as the suspect and about 50 other people were being brought to the court from the prison where they were remanded, his other gang members stormed the court premises shooting sporadically into the air and broke him out.

One of the eyewitnesses at the court premises narrated the incident: “We were here in the court premises when a lawyer came to call us to enter room three for hearing.

“Shortly after that we started hearing sporadic gunshots. About six gunmen entered the court and started shooting. Some people were even wounded.

“They came with a Jeep and eventually they whisked away one of the inmates who the prisons officials brought to the court for hearing. The gunshot lasted over 10 minutes,” he said.

The Imo State police spokesman also confirmed the incident.“One of the inmates, who we know as Vampire, is at large presently”, he said, before adding that “my controller and other security operatives are on top of the situation”.