Five Police Officers serving in Ebonyi State Police Command have been detained by authorities of the Command for their alleged complicity in the escape of four suspects held in the custody of the Command.

In the same vein, authorities of the Command have equally declared the four suspects wanted for illegally escaping from the police custody.

The State Commissioner of Police, Titus Lamorde, made the disclosure in Abakaliki, the state capital on Friday while briefing newsmen on major breakthroughs recorded by the Command in recent times.

Lamorde said that two of the murder escapees, Ekene Omeniyi, 26, from Ezza North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State and Ogonna Alioka, a 35-year-old, from Umuezeokaha community of the state, were arrested for their alledged role in the kidnap and murder of Mrs Catherine Okorie of Amanye community in January 2017.

He said that the kidnap gang demanded the sum of N10m ransom from the elder son of the deceased, Mr Ikechukwu Okorie but later murdered and buried late Mrs Okorie in a shallow grave at Lokpanta forest in Abia State.

According to him, “Fourteen suspects directly connected with the kidnap/murder of Mrs Catherine were arrested and arraigned on 30th March 2017, the suspects are currently being remanded in prison.”

The police boss said that one of the suspects named Ogonna Alioke aka “Pilot” was arrested last August after seven months of intensive search for him, before this mysterious escape from the Command.

He said, “Five Policemen of the State Criminal Investigation Department on cell/ counter Duty, negligently allowed the escape of the kidnap suspect Ogonna Alioka and three other suspects of various Offences.”

“All the Policemen on Counter Duty that day were arrested, detained, defaulted and tried in an orderly room,” Lamorde reiterated.