By Godwin Edeh
The Benue State Police Command has paraded 83 suspected cultists, alongside suspected armed robbers, motorcycle snatchers and those involved in illegal possession of firearms.
This was made known to journalists by the Commissioner of Police, Benue State Command, CP Mohammed Mukaddas, at the state headquarters in Makurdi recently.
CP Mukaddas stated that, between 20th December, 2020 and 5th January, 2021, there was stint operations designed and executed by the command to clamp down on cult related activities and other heinous crimes during the yuletide and the year under review, and they were all arrested from different locations across the state.
According to the commissioner, it led to the arrest of 83 suspected cultists including three of their kingpins, Festus Ijiwole Alias Ranky, Musa Saleh and Raymond Opake.
Other successes recorded during the operations includes the arrest of one suspected armed robber at Polaris Bank, Gboko and motorcycle snatchers at Daudu with members of their gangs now at large. He further stated that, three other suspects were also arrested in Makurdi, Otukpo and Okpokwu Local Government Areas respectively for illegal possession of firearms.
Items recovered from the suspects includes three locally made pistols, three single barrel cut to size guns, three live cartridges, five axes, 14 cutlasses, six knives, military camouflage uniforms, two bullet proof jackets, laptops, fake dollars and criminal charms were recovered from them.
