By Cajetan Mmuta, Awka
The Anambra State Police Command has rescued six kidnap victims and arrested over 136 suspects involved in various offenses in the past two months.
This is as the Inspector General of Police, offencesde Egbetokun, has declared amnesty for all terrorists, gunmen, and those with illegally acquired guns in the South East geopolitical zone and other parts of the country.
He said that after the period of amnesty, anyone found to have guns in their custody would face the wrath of the law.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Aderemi Adeoye, disclosed this on Monday during a press conference on the achievements of the command within the period and the parade of all the suspects in Awka, the state capital.
Among the suspects were five vandals of the Second Niger Bridge and three buyers of cables and other materials vandalized from the bridge.
Also, paraded were suspects involved in kidnapping, armed robbery, vehicle snatchers, cultists, and others.
According to Adeoye, the breakdown of the figure shows 30 suspected insurgents, 39 armed robbery suspects, and 22 kidnap suspects.
A total of 26 guns, 93 rounds of ammunition, 25 stolen vehicles used for kidnapping, 34 tricycles, seven motorcycles, and one full-armoured cable were recovered during raids and other operations, as well full-armoured ills from the Second Niger Bridge.
Adeoye said, “One of the most serious cult killers was traced to Enugu and arrested at his hideout and is now in police custody. His confession was mind-boggling. He also disclosed that his gang has killed four persons in Awka, including a staff of the popular security outfit Blue Shield Security, whom he alleged was a member of a rival cult group.”
“We also smashed the insurgent camp in Ogbunka Community Orumba South local government area last Saturday.”
“We started the operations that led to the crackdown some two months ago, and it was based on an intelligence report that they were trying to kidnap a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in the area.”
“We commenced an investigation to ensure that no innocent life was lost, and we made some arrests and interrogated them. The clue led us to the camp, which was smashed last Friday.”
“We made sure that the evil plan was not carried out, and we put measures to protect the DPO and are trailing the gang leader who is at large and ensure that he is arrested soon.”
“The gang that specializes in intercepting commercial vehicles was arrested at Amaoka, Ihiala, and we also arrested five of the gang members that hijacked an 18-seater bus heading to Lagos and rescued the passengers and facilitated their return to Lagos.”
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“Last week, our Anti-Cult team intercepted three suspected cultists on a bike and recovered a pistol from them at Nsugbe,” he said.
Adeoye also announced that the Command is on the trail of those who kidnapped the Chairman of Amazon Market two weeks ago and has not released the victim after collecting a ransom of N5 million from his relatives.
He noted that the command cannot release findings from its preliminary investigation as it would jeopardize the manhunt for the suspects.
He noted that there was no stipulated time when the amnesty would end but urged members of the public to turn in their guns to the nearest police station, and DPOs and Area Commanders have been directed not to arrest or intimidate anyone who came to hand over those guns.
