- 129 suspected robbers, cultists, vandals meet waterloo, says police boss
From Aloysius Attah, Abuja
COMMISSIONER of Police in Anambra
State, Mr Aderemi Adeoye has narrated how
the state command under him has given crimi-
nal gangs in the state a bloody nose and secured
a new lease of secured life for the people.
This, according to the police boss, was
achieved through a strategic crime fighting
mechanism.
Adeoye, who hails from Osun State, assumed
duty as the 33rd Commissioner of Police in
Anambra State on July 7 2023, at a period that
armed groups, tagged “unknown gunmen” by
many, had unleashed a series of violent attacks
in the state to the extent that seven local govern-
ments were under their grip,
Adeoye in his inaugural address to journalists
vowed to make the state hot and uninhabitable
for criminal elements through the collaborative
efforts of his Command and other sister security
agencies in the state.
While noting that his Command would not
advise the criminal elements perpetrating crime
to relocate from Anambra State, in order not to
create problems for the neighbouring state; the
CP said he would collaborate with the security
agencies in the neighbouring states to deal with
the criminal elements through intelligence shar-
ing and other professional means.
He also assured of sustained partnership with
the Chukwuma Soludo-led government in the
fight against crime.
He said: “We have no delight in anyone los-
ing their lives. But if that is what it will take to
protect the people of Anambra State, we will
not stop at any obstacle to achieve this mandate
given to us by the Inspector-General of Police.
We will secure and protect the people of Anam-
bra State.
“We will serve them to the best of our ability.
We will ensure that lives have value, and that
nobody will take away their fundamental hu-
man rights to life. That is the reason for our exis-
tence here. And we are determined to fulfil this
constitutional role. We call on the support and
collaboration of the people of Anambra State to
achieve this mandate.”
Three months down the line, there is now a
remarkable difference in security matters in the
state as the criminal elements have been sig-
nificantly dislodged while incessant cases of
kidnappings and armed robberies have scaled
down.
Giving an appraisal of the security situation
in a press briefing at the command headquarters
Awka recently, CP Adeoye said the essence to
give the progress report the police have made
under him in crime fighting and providing se-
curity to the people of Anambra State after three
months of his coming.
He attributed the progress to “unprecedented
support and cooperation the police received
from the public, media and the state government
which went a long way in restoring normalcy
and reducing insecurity to the barest minimum”.
He said that within the period under review, 30
insurgents and 39 armed robbery suspects were
arrested. 38 were arrested for cultism while 22
were also nabbed for kidnapping.
He also disclosed that within the period, six
kidnap victims were rescued, 26 firearms and
93 rounds of ammunition were recovered. Also,
25 vehicles, 14 tricycles and seven motorcycles,
one armoured cable and 16 iron grills vandalised
from Second Niger Bridge were all recovered.
“Amid the plethora of successes we have re-
corded, criminal gangs were smashed, kidnap
victims were rescued, while firearms, stolen ve-
hicles, and other items were recovered,” he said.
CP Adeoye, who detailed how the vandals
of the Second Niger Bridge were arrested, also
noted that the Command, under his watch, de-
clared war against cultism, especially in Awka,
the capital city, after which 34 suspects were
arrested, interrogated, and charged to court, all
within a week after launching the operation
against cultism. He added that all the suspects
were remanded in prison custody.
“We didn’t stop at that. Based on intelligence-
led investigations, we tracked down one of the
most serious killers to Enugu State and arrested
him at his hideout. As I’m talking to you now, he
is in custody,” he said.
He further revealed that the suspect, during
interrogation, made some mind-boggling con-
fessions, including killing no fewer than four
persons in Awka in the last six months, being
hired as a thug during elections, and being part of the cult gang that killed a security official
working with the Blue Shield Security Services
sometime ago.
According to the CP, the suspect confessed
that they killed the Blue Shield Security official
not because he was a security man, but because
he was a member of a rival cult group fighting
their own gang, which made them track him to
his house in Amikwo, Awka.
“From the revelations he made, he was also
responsible for the abduction of one other per- son; and his gang extorted the sum of N2 million
naira as ransom, and still killed the victim. He
also gave us insight into other killings in other
parts of the state, such as Nsugbe. And we are
seriously working hard with the information
we gathered from this interrogation to round up
other cultists who are still out there tormenting
the people of Anambra State,” he said.
CP Adeoye also gave an overview of other ar- rests made in the state so far, including the arrest
of a three-man gang that specialises in intercept- ing commercial buses and kidnapping passen- gers. He said: “They operate at Amoka, Ihiala
Local Government Area. Three weeks ago, they
targeted and intercepted a commercial bus con-
veying passengers from Port Harcourt to Lagos,
passing through that area. They hijacked the bus
and kidnapped all 18 passengers on board and
took them to their hideout.
“Fortunately, we got to know of the incident,
and immediately, a joint team of army and po-
lice Special Forces based at Uli went after them.
They fled, but we liberated the 18 kidnap vic-
tims and recovered the bus, brought the passen-
gers to safety, and facilitated their onward travel
to their destinations.
“But we didn’t stop there; we continued the
investigation, and today we have nabbed five of
the suspects that committed that crime.”
The CP thereafter paraded the suspects and
the recovered items before the newsmen, in-
cluding a criminal suspect arrested for robbing
the Awka office of the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN). Also paraded were different types of
charms, police camouflage, flag of the Indig-
enous People of Biafra (IPOB), cars, among
other items.
Speaking on the positive developments so far in crime fighting in the state, the Anambra State
Command Police Spokesman, Ikenga Tochi, a
Deputy Superintendent of Police said CP Ad- eoye’s strategic approach and decisive actions
have proved effective in curbing crime and
ensuring a safer environment for the residents.
He listed those strategic approaches of the CP
to include inter-agency collaborations, arrest of
criminal elements/ crime suspects, recoveries,
rescue operations and resuscitation of Commis-
sioner of Police Commendation Awards. He
said CP Adeoye undertakes various regular and
sometimes unannounced visits to various police
formations in the state while he also offers sup-
port for injured officers as well as active patrols
in many parts of the state
“CP Adeoye is an advocate for professional-
ism and human rights of the citizens. He em-
phasises professionalism among the officers
and also promotes a respectful and courteous
approach to civilians. He has demonstrated
zero tolerance for misconduct and human rights abuse. This advocacy for professionalism was
also reiterated during his recent decoration of
288 newly promoted officers of the Command
recently”.
“He has also ensured an improved non-com-
pliance to sit-at-home in the state, called on the
people to come and reclaim their recovered sto-
len property and also rewarded diligent officers
including the policewoman given cash sum of
N250,000 for rejecting a mouth-watering bribe
offered to her when she intercepted bundles of
stolen armoured cables. There is also the prac-
tice of regular debunking of security-related
misinformation to allay fears among the pub-
lic.” The PPRO stated.
The police PRO in conclusion noted the need
for the people to recognise that the police can-
not be everywhere at the same time. He main-
tained that the support and cooperation of the
public remains crucial so that the police can do
more in their continued efforts to uphold secu-
rity of lives and property in Anambra State.