The Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) attached to Operation Absolute Sanity along the Abuja – Kaduna highway has clamped down on a notorious gang known for cattle rustling and kidnap in neighboring villages and towns.
The force in a statement by its Public Relations Officer CSP Jimoh O. Moshood said the team recovered 413 Cattle, 50 Sheep, two locally made AK47 rifles and one pump action gun on Monday.
According to the statement, the cattle rustlers had attempted to ambush the team but after a fierce gun battle that lasted several hours, they were able to gain control and two rustlers were said to have been killed in the process.
“The Intelligence Response Team (IRT) attached to operation absolute sanity on Abuja – Kaduna highway on the 27th November, 2017 at about 0200 hours working on an actionable intelligence provided by the intelligence branch attached to operation absolute sanity swooped on the camps and criminal hideouts of suspected Cattle rustlers at a location inside Kagarko forest, Kaduna State.
“The IRT team came under ambush of Cattle rustlers while in the process of carrying out the raid to arrest the suspects and recover the rustled Cattle. The team repelled the attack and engaged the cattle rustlers in fierce gun battle that lasted several hours in the forest. At the end, two cattle rustlers fell to the superior fire power of the Police Intelligence Response Team while others escaped into the forest with bullet injuries.”
The Force listed the number of the cattle and sheep that were recovered and subsequently returned to their owners after proper identification.
It also called on others who had lost their cattle to the gang and were yet to recover them, to check at the Operation Absolute Sanity base, while stating that it would intensify efforts to arrest the remaining suspects at large and bring them to justice.
