The Bayelsa State Vigilante Service has been vindicated over the Monday evening arrest of a 46years old man over suspicious attempt to lure three minors for ritual purposes.
The minors rescued by the men of the State Vigilante Service, are between the ages of 11years and 12years.
At the State Police Command, he claimed he was drunk and does not know what he was doing at the time of the arrest. His statement nearly hoodwinked the police into releasing him.
But in a dramatic twist, a female witness volunteered information on the nefarious activities of the suspect based on the FB posting of the State Vigilante on the incident.
It would be recalled that the State Vigilante Service apprehended a suspected ritualist, Ebere Nwosu aged 49 years over his alleged attempt to lure three minors along the popular Tombia-Etegwe axis of the state capital,Yenagoa.
According to the operatives of the State Vigilante service, the suspect was apprehended after a close observation of his “unholy” interaction with the minors who were hawking satchets of water popularly known as pure water.
It was gathered that the operatives of the vigilante service, stationed at Tombia roundabout observed that, at about 5pm, the suspect was engaging the minors; Rejoice Efe, 11yrs and Success Obaru; 12yrs from Delta State, in conversation and making several phone calls to an unknown person.
After an hour, one of the operatives approached the suspect to ask what the problem was and why he held up the hawking activities of the kids. He took to his heels. He was chased and apprehended.
The chairman of the State Vigilante Service, Hon. Doubiye Alagba,who confirmed the development, said the suspect was being observed by the men of the vigilante group stationed at the Tombia-etegwe roundabout area.
According to Hon. Doubiye, “Our men observed how the suspect had kept the three minors busy for several minutes and wondered what he was upto, it was at the point of his several calls and serious discussion with the three minors that we quickly asked one of our men to approach him.
“When he was approached by our member, he immediately took to his heels and was caught after a hot chase.”
One of the minors, Rejoice Efe, 11yrs, told newsmen that, ” we were hawking along the road only for this uncle to call us to buy water from us. We ran towards him and opened our bucket waiting for him to buy the pure water, he started making utterances first to my sister and asked me to wait.
“Before then, he started making several calls, we became scared and insisted that if he was not buying the water again, we should take our leave.
“He kept telling us to wait and was telling I and my sisters that he like us and will take care of us and how would he see us later. We became scared and it was at that point that, one uncle came and asked him what he was telling us and he immediately started running and they caught him.”
The suspect, Ebere Nwosu, who has been handed to the Anti-kidnapping Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, Bayelsa Command for further investigation, denied the allegations of being a suspected ritualist or meant any harm to the kids.
He claimed to have been drunk and did not know what he was doing at the time of interacting with the minors.
Contacted on the development, the spokesman of the Bayelsa Police Command, Asinim Butswat, confirmed the development and said the police has commenced serious investigation.
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