The Rivers State Police Command says it has arrested 57 suspects for their involvement in various criminal activities in the state.
The command also said it recovered nine stolen vehicles from armed robbery suspencts in different parts and locations across the state.
The state Commissioner of Police, Zaki Ahmed stated this while briefing journalists at the command headquarters in Port Harcourt, over the weekend, on the modest achievements recorded by the command between January and February.
Ahmed recalled that the command had tasking security challenges in 2017, and added that the police command, in its determined efforts, was able to weather the storm.
According to him, “It was as a result of genuine efforts put in place by the command that reduced the challenges. The state witnessed pockets of criminal activities such as killings, beheading, among other criminal activities. But to God be the glory, towards the end of the year, these criminal elements were tackled headlong, leading to a steady drop in criminal activities in the last few months. I can assure you that we are doing more to contain these criminal elements and make the state uninhabitable for them”.
The commissioner of police while giving the breakdown of the summary of the achievements disclosed that 22 suspected armed robbers, 23 cultists and 12 suspected kidnappers were arrested while 1 AK-46 rifle, 22 locally-made pistols, 55 live ammunition, 56 cartridges, six single barren guns, eight empty magazines as well as two bags were recovered during the period under review.
The CP told journalists that on February 13, through community policing, the youth of Omerelu in Ikwerre Local Government Area arrested one Promise Onyeka ‘m’ and Ugochukwu Ugorji ‘m’ in possession of one locally-made pistol, adding that the duo were alleged to be members of the armed robbery gang which regularly blocked the Elele-Omerelu-Owerri Road and robbed motorists and passengers of their valuables.
He said the alleged armed robbers were rounded up after robbing one Ejim Standford of his valuables and vandalised his Jetta car, adding that the youth of the community arrested the duo and handed them over to the police, even as he promised that efforts were on to arrest the other gang members.
Ahmed used the opportunity to inform the journalists that he had directed Area Commanders, DPOs and Heads of tactical units in the command to redouble their efforts and embark on massive raids of criminal hideouts and black spots across the state, and assured that the command would not relent in its efforts to sustain the aggressive onslaught against all criminal elements in the state.