The Delta Police Command said it has recorded a major breakthrough in its fight to rid the state of criminal elements.
The command said the breakthrough came with the recent arrest of suspected human traffickers, Kidnappers, Cultists and gun runners among other criminals in the state.
Parading some of the suspects before journalists in Asaba, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Muhammed Inuwah, vowed to make life unbearable for criminals unless they relocated elsewhere.
Inuwah said the police was committed to ensuring the safety of lives and property in the state, even as he commended journalists for their commitment to reporting facts on crimes and police activities over the years.
While appealing to Deltans to always provide the police with useful information that could aid the Police during their investigation, the CP noted that the police will not in any way compromise its integrity, but rather concentrate on sensitizing the society and the people on ways to avoid crimes that will jeopardize their chances of being responsible citizens of Nigeria, especially in the present democratic dispensation.
He thanked residents of the state for their continued partnership with the police in the fight against crimes and criminality, especially in their collaborative efforts and prompt release of information from their various localities in the four months of his arrival as the Commissioner of Police in the state.
Inuwah disclosed that following the kidnap of one Mrs. Victoria Clara Okereka of Ogharaon and the subsequent payment of an undisclosed amount of ransom, the police, in the course of their investigation and through the concerted efforts of the operatives of Special Anti – Kidnapping, Cyber Crime Squad (SAKCCS), arrested five suspects around Old Benin road, Oghara Community.
He identified the suspects as; Omonigho Oghere, male 23yrs, Blessing Osahavibe Efe, male, 21yrs, Kelvin Neke, male, 23yrs, Martin Godday, male, 20yrs, and Augustine Okpokporo, Male , 40yrs, as well as the manager of Nice Hotel Oghara, all natives of Oghara, adding that the arrested suspects confessed to belonging to the same Kidnap gang and their individual roles in the kidnap.
On cultism, the Police boss disclosed that eleven suspected cultists were arrested by Operatives of ” B” Division Agbara- Otor and were later transferred to the Command’s Anti- Cult Squad for further investigation.
The suspects, he named as: Emmanuel Ekwei, male 43yrs, Lucky James, male, 23yrs, Eriga Power, male, 21yrs, Roland Oshevire, male, 26yrs, Uduefe Onoriode male, 26yrs, Akpobome Emmanuel, male, 21yrs, Edafesuwe Ogagei, male, 17yrs, Ureumuose Solomon, 23yrs, Efe John, male, 23yrs, and Omoghene Tunde, male, 29yrs.
All the suspects, according to him, were arrested during a supremacy battle between Aye and Aro-bagger Confraternities which led to the setting ablaze of the house of one Theophilus Otueh, in Agbarho Otor Community in Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state.
Inuwah stated further that the suspects confessed to the crime and their membership of baggers confraternity, adding that they have been charged to court in suit number Ma/ 33c / 2020 and remanded at Warri Correctional Centre, Warri.
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He also disclosed that Anti-Crime Patrol team attached to Ogwashi Uku Police Division, following a distress call on robbery operation, swung into action and subsequently arrested two suspected armed bandits around Cudi Hotel, out of a five man armed robbery gang.
Three other members of the gang fled the scene with gunshot injuries, he said, identifying the arrested suspects as: Ifeanyi Ojeogo, male 21yrs, and Chukwudi Okafor 25rys.
He disclosed that one locally made pistol with one live Cartridge was recovered from one of the arrested suspects, saying that on interrogation, the suspects confessed to previous heinous crimes committed by them.
On the arrest of suspected child traffickers, the Police Commissioner said that two persons, one Tolulope Bosede female, 45yrs, and Abiola Komolafe, female, 20yrs, both of Akure town in Ondo state were intercepted and arrested while on transit in a commercial bus along Asaba/ Benin Expressway in Okpanam area, adding that they were suspected to have sold a newly born male child delivered by one of them, Abiola Komolafe female.
He explained that a pregnant Abiola Komolafe was taken to Onitsha by Tolulope Bosede, where she successfully gave birth to a baby boy, but she later took the baby from her and sold him to one Mrs. Nnkaneme Melife female 37yrs in Onitsha.
Meanwhile, Bosede lied to the mother that the baby that he died some hours after delivery.
The Police Commissioner said that the buyer, Mrs. Melife also later sold the child to another buyer one Mrs. Ekunno Ifeyinwa, female 56yrs, of Onora Family house, Abba Village, Onitsha, adding that the two buyers were arrested with one Josephine Unnoha female and the stolen child was recovered.
He also disclosed that the arrests led to the recovery of another two weeks old male child also suspected to have been stolen while the case is currently undergoing investigation.
On suspected ritualists/ unlawful possession of suspected human bones and used children diapers; the Police Commissioner said that one Stephen Oyibare male, vigilante leader of Igbogidi community in Udu reported at the police station that two suspected ritualists pretending to be of unsound mind were accosted under the DSC Expressway Bridge by Igbogidi.
He added that upon search, the suspects were found with human skulls and bones and consequent upon the report, the divisional patrol team was deployed to the scene where they recovered nine bones, fifteen used baby pads, a pair of skating shoes, red- brownish powdered substance wrapped in three black polythene, a sack containing clothing, documents and two voters’ cards belonging to one of the suspects.
He said that the suspects gave their names as: Yakubu Bala Dagann, male, 33yrs, from Takum, Taraba state, and Emmanuel Obughor male, 30yrs, from Ahoda East Local Government Area of Rivers State.p
