New Abia CP Parades 57 Suspects, Rescues 1 Kidnapped Victim, Promises To Reduce Crimes In The State.

Ugochukwu Eke, Umuahia.

The new Commissioner of Police (CP) in Abia state Chris Okey Ezike has promised to reduce crime rates and anti social behavior and also enhance safety and security of life and property in the state.

Speaking in Umuahia during his maiden media chat in Umuahia, Ezike, said that the Christmas period is around the corner when crime seem to be on the increase and that the officers and men of the command are determined to fight crime with renewed vigor.

Ezike who assumed office in the state just three weeks ago, said that he has held several meetings with all relevant security agencies in the state including the state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu on the way forward in combating crimes in the state.

The new Abia CP noted that the command under him will review personnel deployment profile, “In order to recover wastage from unauthorized deployment and areas of over deployment for better policing”.

He said, “I have established the command monitoring unit and the unit will ensure that police activities are done in conformity with rules, regulations, the law and best practices, with the aim of resolving all cases of excessive use of force, abuse of human rights and corruption reported against police officers”.

“I have also established Abia state command anti-kidnapping squad with the jurisdiction to cover all parts of the state, in the coming days their impacts will be felt in mitigating the challenges of kidnappings in the state”.

Ezike who used the forum to parade some suspects said that his men at Ndiegoro police division arrested the trio of Gabriel Ofordozie, Lucky Nwoye, Chukwudinma Mezeh and Abuchi Ezekwe all of Port Harcourt road Aba, while a six caliber rounds revolver pistol was recovered from them.

He also paraded three suspected armed robbery suspects and gave their names as Ukeje Chigozie from Amokwe Isuikwuato, Desmond Nwakama of Umunwoke Okigwe and Chukwuebuka Desmond of Umugakwu Avutu Obowo.

The CP said that his men received a call that some hoodlums had blocked the Umunze Ofeme axis of the port Harcourt-Enugu expressway, “my men raced to the place only to see the hoodlums running into the bush, a combined team of police men and vigilante group gave them a chase and arrested the three suspects”.

Ezike said that his men also rescued one Dr Ngwaziem Chiemela of Uratta Aba who was held hostage behind Sweet Home in Umuode Aba by suspected kidnappers, “Policemen from Osisioma division stormed the hide-out and engaged the hoodlums in a shoutout”.

He said, “Dr Chiemela was rescued unhurt while the hoodlums escaped but abandoned some of their weapons, the victim said that he was abducted at Greenland hospital Abayi Aba and taken away in his Lexus 330 SUV with the registration number ABA 275 TG”.

“We later arrested two suspects at different locations in Osisioma who gave their names as Friday Kalu and Okafor Okechi Ogbaa Ogbonna, while one AK47 rife with 4 rounds of live ammunition, three locally made pistols, three different vehicle number plates and one Honda Accord with registration number BX 585 PHC were recovered from them”.

Ezike who described the parading of the suspects as harvest of criminal suspects said that a team of the Inspector General of Police intelligence response team in collaboration of Aba police station arrested five suspected armed robbers at various locations in Aba.

He said that the suspects through their confession made it clear that they have been unleashing mayhem to law abiding citizens in Aba area and their names are Ekeoma Kingsley aka Shilo from Alayi in Bende council area, Ama Agha from Afikpo, Uchenna Egbuta aka Awusa from Ohafia, Ikenna Ndukwe aka Obstacle from Obinikita and Ukachukwu Franklin aka Uzor from Nnewi.

The CP equally paraded 18 suspected operators of illegal cooperative societies, financial institutions and fraud, the suspects are 16 female and 2 males and their arrest came as a reports from members of the public especially around Aba area.

He said that the victims complained about unscrupulous activities of some groups and individuals who masquerade as Empowerment companies, church cooperative groups, poverty alleviation units, wonder financial institutions.

Ezike said that he set up an investigation panel to aggregate the complaints, investigate same and determine the scale of the suspected fraud and unmask those behind them.

He said, “The panel noticed that there were 22 groups with 6,728 complaints with N91.182 million have been taken from the victims, but we have recovered the sum of N7.933 million from the suspects”.

The CP promised to bring crime to its lowest point in the state and assured the people that will be coming home for Christmas of their safety and those of their belongings.