At a press briefing held on September 5, 2024, the Commissioner of Police for Delta State, CP Olufemi Abaniwonda, intimated the press of the achievements of the state’s police command from July 25 to September 5, 2024.
CP Olufemi Abaniwonda addressing the press
According to him, earlier in the year, the police had tried to checkmate criminal activities in the state by deploying more policemen to black spots and criminal hideouts across the 25 local government areas across the state.
Highlighting the achievements of the state command in the last two months, the commissioner stated that on September 4, 2024, the police recovered three locally-made cut-to-size guns, one pump action gun, and three live cartridges from suspects along Okwe road, Oko market, Asaba.
Suspects and arms and ammunition
He said the Special Anti-kidnapping and Cybercrime Squad rescued some kidnapped victims along the Asaba-Benin Expressway on July 31.
The victims were rescued at Umunede forest where they were held hostage.
Abaniwonda said that during the rescue mission, the suspects took to their heels leaving behind a dane gun and 10 rounds of live cartridges.
The victims have been reunited with their families, the police boss added.
Suspects and recovered weapons
In another development, during the graduation ceremony of the Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe-Oghara held on August 13, 2024, the police received ‘credible information that some suspected kidnappers had perfected plans to kidnap guests who would be attending the ceremony.’
The police boss said the command acted swiftly on the information received as the DPO led operatives of the Oghara Division to the criminals’ hideout.
The suspects escaped after sustaining some degree of gunshot injuries during a fierce encounter with the police operatives.
Items recovered from the suspects included one AK-47 Riffle, one magazine, one English pump action gun, and one locally-made cut-to-size gun.
Meanwhile, as part of the efforts of the police to bring sanity to Edo State, some suspected kidnappers were arrested with stolen phones that belonged to their kidnapped victims, and two hundred million, three hundred and forty-four thousand naira, being part of ransom received from their victims.
A suspected kidnapper, Joel Ochuko Ofoye, was also arrested on July 18, 2024; however, the suspect was shot during a gun duel between the police and his gang, who were trying to free him.
Joel Ochuko died while receiving treatment at the General Hospital, Ughelli.
Some members of a kidnap gang were arrested after a report was filed by one of their victims.
The gang kidnapped the victim in his home at Sapele on January 17, 2024.
Five million naira (N5,000,000) was collected from the victim as ransom before he was released.
Some members of the gang, Tony Binitie (29 years) aka “BOBO”, Ejiro Ewuba (30 years), and Ayuba Hussaini (38 years) were arrested while efforts to arrest other gang members were ongoing.
Other achievements of the police, CP Abaniwonda disclosed, included the arrest of a suspected drug dealer and armed robbers.
He said items recovered from the suspects included an AK-47 rifle, 29 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, revolver pistols, locally-made guns, and cartridges.
Efforts, he concluded, are in place to arrest suspects that are on the run.
