From Esther Akaa, Lafia
The Nasarawa State Police Command has arrested 28 suspected criminals for allegedly committing various degrees of crime, ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery, unlawful possession of fire arms among others in the state.
The state Commissioner of Police, CP Bola Longe disclosed this recently during the re-launch of the Nigeria Police ‘Operation Puff Adder’ tagged as ‘Operation Puff Adder II’ and held at the state Police headquarter in Lafia.
According to him, the command has identified strategic spots where kidnapping and other criminal activities are mostly carried out and would deploy the new set of operation Puff Adder to fight crime at such strategic areas in the state.
CP Longe said that police personnel of different formations, comprising Mobile Police (MOPOL), Special Forces and Counter-Terrorists group had been deployed to aggressively tackle any form of crime and assured of the Command’s commitment in addressing insecurity in the state.
“We have been psychologically equipped in giving all the necessary logistics. We have been trained and our men are masters of police operations against kidnappers, bandits and those who go after people to take life out of them.
“The 503 special constables trained recently in the state have been deployed to the nooks and crannies of the state particularly their areas of origin and they are providing the police with useful and credible information that has been assisting the police to carry out their statutory and constitutional duties,” the CP said.
He further disclosed that one of the arrested suspects, Inusa Alhaji was allegedly involved in the abduction and killing of the state All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman, Mr Philip Shekwo. He also stated that the command has so far arrested 4 suspects in connection to the incident.
The CP said that the police recovered 7 firearms, 32 live ammunition, 4 vehicles, 1 motorcycle and one million, fifty thousand naira cash from the 28 suspected criminals arrested across the state.
He therefore, called on traditional rulers and the general public to provide the command with useful information that will lead to the arrest of other criminals in the state.
It would be recalled that, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, recently launched Operation Puff Adder II, designed to dislodge armed bandits in the North-west and North-central parts of the country.
