DELTA POLICE DENY REPORT OF RALLY BY WANTED KIDNAP SUSPECT

THE Delta State Police Command has vehemently denied that a wanted kidnap suspect organised a public rally at the small town of Kokori, Ethiope East Local Council of Delta State, where he reportedly issued the Federal Government a 60-day ultimatum to develop the community or risk having oil wells there shut.
Going by the account of the recent report in one of the national dailies,[READ IT HERE] the kidnap suspect, Mr. Kelvin Ibruvwe, had, in open defiance and show of force, led a band of gun-wielding masked men, all dressed in military camouflage to Kokori where he addressed a cross section of the people who cheered him as he spoke.
The suspected felon and self-styled leader of the Liberation Movement for the Urhobo People (LIMUP) and his henchmen hinged their resort to the macabre business of kidnapping for a handsome ransom on desperation, saying it was meant to draw government’s attention to the high rate of unemployment, the underdevelopment of the oil rich town and the grinding poverty in the rustic community.
Shell-shocked by the bravado of Delta’s Most Wanted in spite of the watchful eyes of policemen who are hot on his trail, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Lucky Uyabeme, had initially said that it was incredible that the suspected kidnap kingpin could openly show up in the community to stage a rally, promising to issue a comprehensive statement once he gets in touch with the local Divisional Police Officer (DPO).
Speaking with The Guardian in Asaba, Saturday, Uyabeme admitted that he did get in touch with the DPO at Kokori, Mr. Austin Chukwuma, who insisted that the report was just a “figment of the reporter’s imagination” and that “there was no iota of truth in the story.”
A memo dated September 19 with reference number SB: 0900/DTS/SKL/Vol. 5/9 and addressed to the Commissioner of Police attempted to set the records straight.
Titled: Re: Delta’s Most Wanted Kidnap Suspect Gives Government 60-Day Ultimatum”, Chukwuma wrote that no report of such an incident was ever recorded at Kokori, insisting that all available intelligence gathered from the State Investigating Bureau (SIB), operatives in the division and other independent reliable sources clearly showed that the account of the report was fake.
Continuing, the DPO advised: “It is my humble view that the entire publications including the fake names mentioned is a grand design by the said Kelvin Ibruvwe and his cohort to attract undeserved government/public attention and sympathy. I, therefore, urge the police authorities to discountenance the publication as baseless.”
Uyabeme amplified Chukwuma, insiting that the photograph of the event where an old woman who was sandwiched by locals was seen clenching her fist as she spoke to a supposed journalist with a tape recorder in hand was also fake, adding that the two names, Mrs. Favour Sokodi and Chief Saroke Edeh mentioned in the publication could neither be identified nor confirmed as indigenes of the small town.
Source: Guardian.