Edo State Police Command says it has arrested 40 suspected armed robbers, kidnappers and cultists, recovering arms and ammunition from them. Commissioner of Police, Mr. Lawah Jimeta, vowed to continue raiding the criminals’ hideouts:
“I have ordered my police detectives to go after criminals and this is yielding good result. People are assisting us with useful information. We were able to arrest the criminals in different locations in the state. Operatives of the Anti-Cultism Squad (ACS), arrested 30 suspected cultists belonging to different cult confraternities were arrested at different locations for disturbing public peace.
“Thirteen of them have been charged to court while others are under investigation. We recovered four locally made guns, 13 live cartridges, four expended cartridges, beret caps and unregistered motorcycle.
“Operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) arrested three suspects were arrested in Igarra over the alleged kidnap of four lecturers and 13 students of the Department of Geology, University of Benin, who were in the area for field studies. All the kidnapped victims were rescued unhurt and have returned to their destination.
“Two suspected kidnappers, Endurance and Elijah were arrested at their hideouts for the kidnap and murder of Faith Egekihagbona, a student of Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, on December 9, 2019. The suspects were charged to court while we recovered one Itel 5606 phone, one Itel xn23 and four sim cards.
“Detectives arrested one Eeighe, a self-claimed pastor, in Esan Central Local Government for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl. A medical report obtained revealed bruises on the private part of the victim. The suspect will soon be charged to court.
“Also, one Junior was arrested at Ubiaja for allegedly raping and robbing one Helina. The suspect after raping the victim, robbed her of N10,000 while armed with cutlass. The suspect will soon be charged to court. Detectives arrested Emeka with 30 bags of weeds suspected to be cannabis along the Lagos/Benin Expressway. The case will be transferred to NDLEA for further investigation. We held a workshop with all the stakeholders which helped us to resolve the crisis in Olugbo community.”