Chukwuma was not arrested by the police; he was not arrested by the Owerri Prisons authorities but was busted right in Owerri prisons by a team from the Inspector General of Police (IGP’s) Intelligence Response Team (IRT) alongside Joseph Chiaotu alias Ejima, Anozie Chinonso and Uzodimma Chukwudi.
Even after Chukwuma was arrested and the racket revealed, indications suggest that nothing substantial was done to really lock down Vampire who, according to Chukwuma, was receiving his share of proceeds of kidnap operations even while in prison.
Vampire did not just organise kidnap operations from prison; he groomed and initiated young men into his nefarious trade.
If he could turn a prison official into a kidnap operator, prison inmates would have been no match for his cunning and devious mind. His escape as far as Imo residents were concerned was an inexcusable blunder on the part of security agencies in the state; all of whom blamed on the Owerri prison officials.
It was therefore the expectation of Imo people that government should take decisive steps to speedily restore the confidence of the residents of Owerri in the ability and capacity of government to protect them.
The state police command, having shown apparent deficiencies in its capacity to neutralise the operations of high-prized criminals like Vampire were shunted to the background by more efficient special forces from the office of the Inspector General of Police who took over the responsibility to track down the felon and his gang members.
A quiet but intensive manhunt ensued immediately the IGP’s squad took over the operations and on Thursday, 2nd March, 2017, Vampire was gunned down by the Inspector General of Police’s (IGP’s) Special Forces led by the Intelligence Response Team after a gun duel in a forest in Omu Awa community in Ikwerre council area of Rivers State.
The hoodlums who initially resisted and engaged the operatives from the office of the IGP in a gun battle, were later gunned down about 1:00 am on Thursday.
Five of his gang members – Obinna Elah, 26; Arinze Abecheta, 24; Chukwuebuka Ikeazota, 23; Samuel Ugochukwu, 24; and Clifford Aheana – were arrested in the operation while a cache of arms and ammunition were recovered from them.
This is also as impeccable Police sources narrated that intelligence devices deployed during the operations revealed that Vampire had resolved that someday he would be caught but assured his colleagues that it would be at a huge cost to the society.
The vicious gunman had according to credible police sources concluded plans to attack Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and thereafter attack strategic public places which included the Concorde Hotel Owerri. He had boasted that he would execute his plans as soon as he returned from a strategic trip to India. The killing of Vampire was not a tea party.
It was not without many troubles. It stretched the wits, skills and courage of the special squad. According to one of the operatives of the IGP’s squad who was narrating the rigours of nailing the kidnap kingpin to his colleagues during the parade of the criminals, “Vampire is slippery and devilish. You will never find him sleeping inside the house.
He would always sleep in open spaces outdoors and he will spring awake and alert on the slightest noise, even a distant ringing of the phone. He was always armed clutching an AK-47.
The squad had tracked him to Ehime Mbano, he swiftly moved to Aba, we followed him to Aba but the environment was not too conducive as there were children playing all over the neighbourhood. He didn’t immediately see us but he sensed that he was in danger he escaped but his brother took bullets in his arm.
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