From Tunde Suleman, Minna
The Niger State Police Command has recorded drastic reduction in crime rates from January to date, according to statistics made available on Thursday in Minna, the state capital.
Commissioner of Police in the state, Olusola Emmanuel Amore, made the disclosure while addressing journalists on the activities of the command from January to June, 2015. Amore said in a comparative analysis of major crime statistics for the first and second quarters of the year, only kidnapping had a little increase while other crimes reduced drastically.
Amore said the command recovered N42.2 million cash from fleeing kidnappers in Kontagora local government area of the state, which was ransom money collected from families of kidnapped victims from neigbouring Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states. He added that the money had been transferred to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) Abuja.
Amore noted that within the period under review, 1,091 persons were arrested in 785 cases reported even as 666 persons were convicted. 251 persons are awaiting trial and 56 cases are under investigation and properties worth N22,453,400 were recovered.
The CP explained that the command carried out 456 raids with 933 arrested persons while 305 people were screened. It also recovered 399 exhibits even as 539 were charged to court out of which 342 persons were convicted.
According to him, the command grapples with inadequate logistics, paucity of funds and insufficient manpower to carry out its responsibilities. He urged governments at every level including individuals to always come to the aid of Nigerian police in such direction for maximum results.
He appealed to the public not to relent in given police vital information about crimes and criminals in order to have a safe society.
Amore stated that every agency in the administration of justice had contributed to prison congestion in the country and called for inter-agency collaboration in putting to an end prolong trial of cases in courts.
He stated that four major crimes were discovered from the mapping which were cattle rustling, armed robbery, ransom kidnapping and youth gang culture.
Amore added that arms recovered within the period included 10 AK-47 rifles, four pump action guns, 10 single-barrel guns, one double barrel and a foreign-made pistol, eight locally made pistols, three locally made revolvers and 794 rounds of live ammunition.
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