Anambra State Police Command has paraded suspects arrested for different crimes such as kidnapping, cultism, robbery, impersonation and insurgency.
ANN gathered that in the last three months, the command has arrested 30 insurgency, 39 suspects for armed robbery, 38 cultist (over 30 charged to court), 22 suspects for kidnapping, 6 kidnapped victims have been rescured from their adoptors and giving medical attention and united with their families.
Other items recovered includes; “26 guns, 93 rounds of various animations, 25 motor vehicles and 14 tricycles were recovered and given to their owners, 7 motorcycles, one roll of armod ceble, one genarator, 16 iron grills stolen from the second Niger bridge, a pump action gun, locally made cut-to-size guns, pistol and cartridges, fake police uniforms, Biafra flags and assorted charms
Speaking in a press confrence on Monday at the Police Command Headquarters, Amawbia, Awka South Local Government Area of the state,
CP Aderemi Adeoye hinted that weapons are sold in the Onitsha Main Market in Anambra State.
The CP who said he was talking from a long experience of service in the state which commenced in the 1990s, revealed that the situation had even worsened recently. He described the Onitsha main market as one of the sources for proliferation of weapons in the state.
The Commissioner also noted that illegal arms were also being brought into the South-East from Cameroon via Port Harcourt. He revealed that the dealers package such weapons with stockfish and bring them at a place near Aba, Abia State for ready buyers.
The CP restated the Inspector General of Police’s grace period for people with illegal firearms to return them to the police, stating that within the grace period nobody would be punish or prosecuted for returning such arms.
According to Adeoye, “After this grace period we shall began search and recovery of such firearms the way that has not happened in this part of the world and culprits will be prosecuted appropriately.”
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 cult 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.
“Amid the successes we have recorded, criminal gangs were smashed, kidnap victims were rescued, while firearms, stolen vehicles, and other items were recovered,”.
“Based on intelligence-led investigations, we tracked down one of the most serious killers to Enugu State and arrested him at his hideout. He is in custody,”.
“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 2.4 million naira as ransom, and still killed the victim at Umuawulu. 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,”.
Adeoye also said Awka blacksmiths manufacture local guns, thereby contributing in the proliferation of illegal arms. He said the command would go after such arm manufacturers and bring them to book.
