The Edo State Police Command has arrested 13 suspected kidnappers and rescued nine kidnapped victims across the state in August.
The Commissioner of Police, Edo State Command, CP Patrick Daaor, disclosed this at the Command’s August end-of-month press conference in Benin City.
Daaor said the command also arrested 14 suspects in connection with armed robbery and other violent crimes, 19 suspected cultists, six suspected human traffickers and five suspects linked to store breaking and stealing during the month under review.
He added that 12 suspects were arrested in connection with sexual and gender-based violence, with several of them already arraigned in court, while eight vehicles were recovered in connection with suspected criminal activities.
The commissioner identified the arrest of five suspected members of a kidnapping and banditry network operating along the Auchi-Okene axis as one of the command’s major breakthroughs during the period.
According to him, the suspects were arrested in Niger State on August 30 following the abduction of a couple at Jattu, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, on August 8.
He said operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and Violent Crime Response Unit, acting on technical and actionable intelligence from the Technical Intelligence Unit, Abuja, arrested five suspects.
Daaor said the suspects had confessed to the Jattu kidnapping as well as several other kidnapping operations in Edo and Kogi states.
He disclosed that information obtained from the suspects subsequently led to the recovery of two fabricated AK-47 rifles, a pump-action rifle, six magazines and 200 rounds of live AK-47 ammunition from the Okpella forest.
The commissioner said efforts were ongoing to apprehend other members of the gang.
Daaor assured residents that the command would sustain intelligence-led operations against kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, human trafficking, sexual and gender-based violence and other forms of criminality.
He urged members of the public to provide the police with credible and timely information, stressing that community partnership remained vital to tackling crime.
The commissioner also commended officers and men of the command, sister security agencies, hunters, forest guards and community partners for their support in the fight against crime.
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