From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The acting Inspector -General of Police Mr Alkali Baba has disclosed that over 5,000 weapons and live ammunition were recovered from secessionists and armed bandits across the country.
This is even as he said that the police have recorded successes against secessionists and criminals in the South East, but they were yet to be prosecuted because of the ongoing strike by Judiciary workers.
The IGP also disclosed that 1,166 high-profile suspects have been arrested nationwide between April and May .
He further disclosed that a total number of 3,700 policemen drawn from various police units were deployed to South East and South South to halt the incessant attacks on police facilities; personnel, military and other violent crimes.
According to him,the Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT), established in October 2020 to fill the vacuum created by the notorious police unit, Federal Special Anti-robbery Squad (FSARS), was yet to take off .
He made these disclosures at the presidential briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the presidential villa, Abuja yesterday.
Speaking on the recoveries made since the launch of Operation Restore Peace, Baba said: “For record purpose, I can briefly mention our recoveries and the successes. They go as follows: in terms of recovery after the lunching of this operation, we’ve been able to recover the following weapons and arms from secessionist and the armed insurgents: One general purpose machine gun, 10 AK47 rifles, nine locally made fabricated rifles, four locally fabricated pistols and 19 AK47 magazines. We have recovered over 5,419 live ammunition with 10 improvised explosive devices.
“In terms of arrest, we have 398 armed robbery suspects in our custody, 258 cult related offenders, 222 murder suspects, 202 bandits related matters and 86 suspects involved in cases of kidnappings.
“This statistic I’m giving you is from April 7 to date. 434 firearms of various descriptions were also recovered. So these are some of the things we have done”.
“With the proscription of FSARS and the establishment of SWAT which has not been able to take off fully, we have vacuum in tackling most of the violent crimes from a position of strength in terms of having a strike force that is dedicated for that, rather than having our conventional police doing the policing in conventional way.