Benue State Police Command have arrested 21 people over wanton destruction of properties in Oju Local Government Area of the state.
Parading the suspects at the command headquarters in Makurdi, yesterday, the Commissioner of Police, Julius Okoro, explained that the suspects were arrested on Sunday morning at the scene of the crime. He said they were destroying and setting ablaze properties following a disagreement last Saturday over where to site a school which a firm promised to build for them. The commissioner, who spoke through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Catherine Anene, said no life was lost, just as peace has been restored in the communities.
Anene said the commissioner had ordered that the suspects be charged to court immediately after interrogation. The PPRO described the scale of damage done by the suspects as massive, adding that no one is allowed to take laws into their own hands. He assured that they all will be prosecuted according to law.
She explained that a firm had promised to build a school for the communities, but at the point of agreeing on a location where it would be built, they all left for the day without agreement, only to wake up the next morning, which was on a Sunday, to see that some youths had started destroying properties and set close to 20 houses ablaze.
She added that when the police and some other security agencies got to the location, they found some youths at the scene still wrecking havoc and arrested them.