From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
THE Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Pulo Shield has arrested an alleged notorious kidnapper terrorising the Niger Delta region.
Twenty-one other suspects were also picked up for offences ranging from kidnapping, sea-piracy to oil bunkering.
Spokesman of JTF, Lt. Col. Isa Ado, who briefed newsmen in Yenagoa, said the suspected kidnapper identified as Presley Umukoro, who had been at large, was arrested in Oghara, Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State.
He said Umukoro, whose last operation involved the kidnap of one Mrs Ufoma James, was in the custody of JTF and was undergoing interrogation.
Ado stated that the 21 others were arrested along Ughelli–Warri Road and in Orerokpe community in Ughelli North and Okpe local government areas of Delta State respectively.
Items recovered from the suspects, he bsaid, included rolls of stolen armoured cable, two circuit breakers, 12 cut-outs and two saw blades. Other items were bags of substances suspected to be Indian hemp.
He said the recovered items were in the custody of JTF for preliminary investigation before handing them over to the prosecuting agencies.
Ado added that soldiers attached to Sector 1 Anti-illegal Oil-bunkering Squad of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Pulo Shield deployed to Oka pipeline in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo State discovered a hose connected to an illegal oil bunkering truck with registration number EDO BEN 117 ZN loaded with 16 plastic tanks of 1,500-litre capacity each containing illegally refined AGO.