The Abia State Police Command says 134 suspected robbers, 29 child traffickers, 26 kidnap-pers, 24 cultists, 18 car snatch­ers, and 15 pipeline vandals had been arrested in the state in the past eight months.
Arrested also within the period under review accord­ing to police were eight fraud­sters, seven burglars, four rap­ists, and two murders.
Commissioner of Police, Mr Leye Oyebade who an­nounced this while parading some sus-pects yesterday in Umuahia, also said 220 arms and ammunition, 40 vehicles, 15 motorcycles/ tricycles were recovered while 15 kidnap victims were also rescued.
Oyebabe who restated the commitment of officers and men of the command to deal deci-sively with criminals in the state said police were synergising with other secu­rity agencies to rid the state of criminal-minded elements.
He later paraded suspected killers of four members of Abia State Vigilante secu­rity outfit (a.k.a Bakassi Boys) who were gruesomely mur­dered by armed men in Aba in February 2017.
The suspects, Chimezie Ezeigbo alias ‘Landlord’ and Emeka Ukaegbu (a.k.a Small Pin), were arrested following a tip-off after they had ab­ducted a banker in Aba.
Police said the suspects were arrested in the bush while keeping guard over the kidnap vic-tim while the vic­tim’s Toyota Siena car, as well as one pump action rifle and nine live ammu-nition, were recovered from them.
Also paraded was another kidnap suspect, one Salisu Ibrahim who was arrested after his gang had abducted a hotel manager in Umuahia.
According to police, opera­tives of ‘D7 anti- kidnap team’ while on patrol, intercepted a blue Volkswagen Sharan van whose occupants on sighting police vehicle jumped out and took to their heels.
Police said after closer observation and inspection of the abandoned car, the proprietor of a popular guest house in Umuahia, Chief Ja­cob Kalu was discovered in­side the car boot.
Paraded also was one Charles Uzodinma, the sus­pected ring leader of a kid­nap gang which abducted a 90-year-old Pa Jeremiah Adindu, father of former Chief Press Secretary to Gov­er-nor Okezie Ikpeazu, Mr Godwin Adindu.
The nonagenarian was on March 28 rescued inside the bush between Obingwa and Osisio-ma by the collabora­tive efforts of the police, local vigilante and hunters in the area.
Similarly, police paraded an alleged serial paedophile, Daniel Emeka, 51, who alleg­edly “lur-es underage boys to his hotel room in Aba where he rapes them”.
Police said the victim’s mother, (names withheld) had reported about the sud­den disappear-ance of her son following which intelligence report led to the arrest of the suspect.
Later in an interview, the 12-year-old victim, said he was lured into the hotel where the sus-pect lodged by anoth­er boy who acted as the man’s agent.
He said the suspect who pretended to be a business­man from Lagos delayed him until late in the night and per­suaded him to pass the night with him in the hotel together with the other boy who posed as his son.
“Around midnight he woke me up and used me”, the victim mumbled.
The mother of the victim said the suspect was using agents to lure innocent boys before de-filing them.
There was, however, a mild drama as the suspect who first claimed to have hailed from Asa-ga Ohafia later confessed he is a native of Ugwunagbo after he was asked to speak Ohafia dialect by one of the newsmen but he could not.
He later confessed that he married from Ohafia but claimed innocent of the alle­gations against him.- The Authority