Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
By Abasifreke Effiong
The Nigeria Police Force said it rescued 1,002 kidnapped victims and also recovered 960 stolen cars across the country in the year 2020.
The Police arrested 21,296 ‘highly dangerous criminal suspects’ in the year 2020, recovered 3,347 firearms and 133,496 ammunition, according to the Force Public Relations Officer, CP Frank Mba.
Mba said the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, gave the statistics while reviewing police operations for the year.
READ : Akwa Ibom Government to complete two major erosion projects in 2021
“The IGP while reviewing the scorecard of police operations at the Force CID and Force Intelligence Bureau, revealed that a total of 21,296 criminal suspects involved in various violent crimes, were arrested and 3,347 firearms, 133,496 ammunition and 960 stolen vehicles recovered. Also, 1,002 kidnap victims were safely rescued from their abductors and reunited with their families.”
Notable among the kidnap kingpins was one Abubakar Umaru a.k.a Buba Bargu, ‘m’, 35 years, native of Kato Shiroro area of Niger State who was arrested by the operatives of the Special Tactical Squad (STS).
Umaru is a member and armourer of a gang that has carried out several kidnap for ransom operations along Lokoja-Abuja/Abuja –Kaduna highways and other major highways in the North-Central States of the country, the police said.
Advertisement.
The police also named a five member armed robbery syndicate who has her criminal network and base spread across Edo, Delta, Ondo and Lagos States as one of her success operations for the year.
Members of the five man gang namely; Godspower Ebogie ‘m’, Samede Miracle ‘m’, Efosa Rowland a.k.a Double ‘m’, Michael Ifeanyi Egwuatu ‘m’ and Ifeanyi Ewurum a.k.a Rati ‘m’ were arrested at various locations and linked to several cases of armed robbery and car snatching at gunpoint under investigations by the Police.
RELATED STORY : PSC promotes four AIGs, 21 police officers killed in EndSARS protest, others
The Police have stressed that it will be ‘unrelenting in the fight against all forms of crimes especially kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry, cultism, cybercrime, Sexual/Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), amongst others in the country in the year 2021.’
Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba said the IGP has promised that the Nigeria Police Force ‘will implement aggressive, proactive, intelligence-driven and community-based crime fighting strategies in its quest to make the country safer.’
