IZUNNA OKAFOR
Over fifty suspects have been arrested for various crimes and crime-related activities in Anambra State in the last three months, with no fewer than 26 guns recovered from various individuals.
The State Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye, disclosed this on Monday while presenting a quarterly account of his stewardship as the State’s CP to newsmen.
Flanked by some top officers of the Command during the press conference held at the Command’s Headquarters in Awka, the capital, the CP also revealed that no fewer than 29 kidnap victims have been rescued unharmed by operatives of the Command, with 16 iron grills stolen from the Second Niger Bridge recovered, and five of the vandals arrested, along with three of their buyers. Cars, guns, tricycles, motorcycles, one roll of armored cable, a generator, among other items, were also recovered by the Command.
“The purpose of inviting you is to inform the public of the progress we have made so far in fighting crime and providing security for the good people of Anambra state.
“Amid the plethora of successes we have recorded, criminal gangs were smashed, kidnap victims were rescued, while firearms, stolen vehicles, and other items were recovered,” he said.
CP Adeoye, who detailed how the vandals of the Second Niger Bridge were arrested, also noted that the Command, under his watch, declared war against cultism, especially in Awka, the capital city of the State, after which 34 court suspects were arrested, interrogated, and charged to court, all within a week after launching the operation against cultism. He added that all the suspects were remanded in prison custody.
“We didn’t stop at that. Based on intelligence-led investigations, we tracked down one of the most serious killers to Enugu State and arrested him at his hideout. As I’m talking to you now, he is in custody,” he said.
He further revealed that the suspect, during interrogation, made some mind-boggling confessions, including killing no fewer than four persons in Awka in the last six months, being hired as a thug during elections, and being part of the cult gang that killed a security official working with the Blue Shield Security Services sometime ago.
According to the CP, the suspect confessed that they killed the Blue Shield Security official not because he was a security man, but because he was a member of a rival cult group fighting their own gang, which made them track him to his house in Amikwo, Awka.
“From the revelations he made, he was also responsible for the abduction of one other person; and his gang extorted the sum of 2. million naira as ransom, and still killed the victim. He also gave us insight into other killings in other parts of the state, such as Nsugbe. And we are seriously working hard with the information we gathered from this interrogation to round up other cultists who are still out there tormenting the people of Anambra State,” he said.
CP Adeoye also gave an overview of other arrests made in the State so far, including the arrest of a three-man gang that specializes in intercepting commercial buses and kidnapping passengers.
He said: “They operate at Amoka, Ihiala Local Government Area. Three weeks ago, they targeted and intercepted a commercial bus conveying passengers from Port Harcourt to Lagos, passing through that area. They hijacked the bus and kidnapped all eighteen passengers on board and took them to their hideout.
“Fortunately, we got to know of the incident, and immediately, a joint team of army and police special forces based at Uli went after them. They fled, but we liberated the eighteen kidnap victims and recovered the bus, brought the passengers to safety, and facilitated their onward travel to their destinations.
“But we didn’t stop there; we continued the investigation, and today we have nabbed five of the suspects that committed that crime.”
The CP thereafter paraded the suspects and the recovered items before the newsmen, including a criminal suspect arrested for robbing the Awka office of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Also paraded were different types of charms, police camouflage, flag of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), cars, among other items.
CP Aderemi Adeoye assumed office as the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State on July 7, 2023.