By Deborah Ogedemgbe
Benin – The Edo Police Command said in Benin on Wednesday that it was holding 27 suspects for various criminal activities.
The state Commissioner of Police, Haliru Gwandu, who disclosed this at a media briefing, said the suspects were arrested within the last seven days.
According to Gwandu, those arrested included six suspected armed robbers, five suspected kidnappers, 13 suspected cultists and three suspected cyber-crime suspects.
He said that the suspects were arrested with various arms and ammunition in their possession, which included cut-to-size guns, cartridges, pistols, locally-made short guns, double barreled guns and pump action guns.
Gwandu restated the command’s preparedness to combat crime in all forms in the state, stressing that criminals should know that Edo was not safe for them.
He enjoined residents to be law-abiding and to cooperate with the Nigerian Police in taming the tide of criminality in the state.
Gwandu assured that the command would not relent in stemming the tide of criminality and called for information from members of the public on the activities of suspected criminals in their neighbourhoods.
The CP told newsmen that all the suspects and their offences were still been investigated, after which they would be charged to court.
He disclosed that a Police inspector from the command, who was allegedly involved in a case of extra-judicial killing a few days ago, had been apprehended.
Gwandu gave assurance that after the investigation, the officer would be discharged from the force, saying “There is no sacred cow in the force”.
On the directive from the Edo Government that the Police should ensure that no unauthorised persons are able to collect revenue for government, Gwandu said that there had been 80 per cent compliance from members of the public.
He, however, said that about 40 persons had been arrested over illegalities in that regard.
