By Christopher Oji
The Abia State Police Command has arrested 35 suspected criminals across the state in the last one week, including two Fulani herdsmen nabbed for armed robbery.
Also, the command has rescued two kidnap victims.
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adeleye Oyebode, who paraded the suspects on Monday, in Umuahia, said they were notorious criminals who held Abia State by the jugular.
Giving a breakdown of the arrest, the CP, said: “A motorcyclist was shot by two Fulani herdsmen who wanted to snatch his motorcycle. The commercial motorcycle operator resisted the hoodlums and they shot him. The two suspects were picked.
“Also in our net are three notorious members of Red Banger Confraternity, who allegedly stabbed a fellow cult member, Prince, to death. The cult group has been terrorising the state. We have declared a manhunt for other members on the run.
“Operatives attached to Dragon Squad, Aba, acting on a tip-off, arrested three suspected kidnappers in a hotel, where they went to share the ransom collected from a victim. The victim’s car and the gang’s operational vehicles were recovered.”
Oyebode said the Police Mobile Force, at Owerrinta, acting on a tip-off, intercepted a 14-seater bus and arrested two occupants of the vehicle. “The gang had abducted a student of Imo State University, Ijeoma Okereke, who the police rescued,” the police commissioner said.
He added detectives attached to Abiriba division arrested two habitual burglars in the community.
“They didn’t even spare the poor, as every house had been robbed,” he said, revealing that the gang, which had been terrorising the Enugu/Port Harcourt expressway, was smashed when a driver held one of its members during their operation.
He said policemen shot death a suspected kidnapper during an operation to rescue one Onyemechi Mbamaonyeukwu, who was held hostage by a gang.