The Anambra State Police Command had a breakthrough when it arrested 181 suspected robbers and recovered over 8,496 arms after raiding several hideouts in various parts of the state.
Elated Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr Usman Gwary who disclosed the cheery news to Sunday Sun added that the command also recovered over 90,835 cartridges and 164 loaded magazines for the AK47 rifle.
He said the police had serious encounters with armed robbers and kidnappers in December 2013, during which his officers and men were able to recover stolen goods and rescue kidnap victims.
Gwary commended operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) led by Supol James Nwafor (CSP) for their gallantry in rescuing victims of kidnapping in the course of raiding criminals hideouts across the state.
He explained that the command arrested over 182 notorious kidnappers and rescued over 45 victims held by them, noting that 18 kidnappers were shot dead in the process.
Some of the arms recovered from the arrested criminals include 25 AK47 rifles, two types of K2 rifle, one air rifle, 57 locally made pistols, 120 pump action guns, three toy guns, 15 DGSGS, nine English pistols, three cut-to-size shotguns and 25 MG rifles, among others.
The Anambra police boss said that 14 robbers who engaged the police in a gun duel were shot dead. Gwary said that Anambra Police Command had restored sanity to some notorious areas in the state where criminals used to have a field day.
Reaffirming his mission in the state, he said: “I am here in Anambra State Police Command to fight kidnappers and armed robbers. This is achievable with the support of the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, who has enabled us to map out our strategy. We want to ensure that kidnapping and armed robbery become things of the past in the state. I am not interested in land matters. I have warned my officers not to handle any land matter. The courts are there to handle the land matters. We have to face criminals who have been terrorizing the state and we have been able to arrest them.”
He thanked Anambra people for providing information on criminals, saying this had helped the command a lot in tackling crimes and criminals in the state.
FROM NGOZI UWUJARE
