Tony Osauzo, Benin
EDO State Police Command announced yesterday that it has decongested prisons and police cells across the state to check the spread of the dreaded coronavirus in compliance with the directive of the federal government to decongest the prisons by charging several cases to court and releasing offenders with offences that could warrant bail.

The state Commissioner of Police, Lawan Jimeta, who stated this while parading 146 suspected criminals including suspected kidnappers, armed robbers, fraudsters, rapists, murderers and others, also said operatives of the command were trailing and tracking suspected kidnappers of the state Commissioner for Science and Technology,  Emmanuel Agbale, who was kidnapped four days ago‎.


As a way of stemming the spread of the disease among police personnel in particular and the public in general, all police cells were decongested, those with serious offence were charged to court, while those with bailable offences were released forthwith. In the same vein, influx of visitors to the Command Headquarters was also minimized”, Jimeta said.

 

On the kidnap of the Commissioner, he said “We are all aware of the unfortunate kidnap of the Commissioner for Science and Technology. Right from that day, the Command and the Anti-Kidnapping Unit have gone round, they are still in the bush as we are talking. There was contact with the family so we are tracing them but there are other things that we cannot tell you now so as not to jeopardise our moves but till now unfortunately, this is the third day but we are still following up with the track on the kidnappers”

Related News

   

He disclosed that in the last one month, 20 suspected kidnappers, 69 suspected cultist and 42 armed robbers have been arrested, adding that four suspected victims were rescuded.

Besides, he said one suspected armed robber was killed while one suspected rapist, two suspected murderers, one burglar and six fraudsters were also arrested in the period under review.

Jimeta also commented on the dusk to dawn curfew imposed by the state government and said the first day witnessed almost 100 per cent compliance with few arrests made and that the police would jointly with sister security agencies ensure compliance as directed by the state government for the first 10 days.