Police Arrest 90 Suspected Rapists, 82 Kidnappers in Katsina

•Kill five kidnappers, rescue 171 victims 

•FG seeks support  on capacity building, policy gaps from EU

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja and Francis Sardauna in Katsina

The Katsina State Police Command, has arrested 90 suspected rapists, 82 suspected kidnappers, 73 murder suspects across the state between June to September, 2023.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu, who disclosed this yesterday while briefing journalists, said the suspects were among the 1,005 arrested within the period under review.

Aliyu, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said the 1,005 suspected criminals were nabbed by operatives of the command in connection with 853 reported cases, adding that 395 cases were undergoing prosecution.

He said, “In the course of this campaign, a total number of fifty-three suspected armed robbers, eighty two suspected kidnappers, seventy-three murder suspects and ninety suspected rapists were arrested.”

He added that 707 other suspects were arrested for various offences ranging from criminal force, cultism, intimidation, being in possession of hard drugs, dried suspected to be Indian hemp, among others.

Aliyu said the command neutralised five suspected kidnappers, rescued 171 kidnapped victims and recovered four AK-47 rifles, six locally made guns and 517 live rounds of ammunition.

“We also recovered over 600 suspected rustled animals, 29 suspected stolen motor vehicles and motorcycles, 568 sachet of D5 tablets, 180 wraps of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp.

“Other items recovered from the suspects include 23 packets of Exzole tablets, 411 packets of rebozel tablets and five packs of Diezole tablets. Members of the Fourth Realm, I will like to acknowledge and appreciate your immense cooperation and partnership with the command.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Police Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, yesterday, sought the collaboration, partnership and technical support for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) from the European Union (EU) to enable the police ecosystem to achieve its target of deploying global norms and best practices.

The minister made the call during a meeting with the European team led by the European Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Samuela Isopi, at the Ministry of Police Affairs in Abuja.

Sulaiman-Ibrahim stated that the technical support and partnership should be in the area of addressing policy gaps and capacity building that would boost the capacity of an existing and evolving Nigeria Police in the country.

She said the Renewed Hope Agenda of the  President Bola Tinubu-led administration had eight components, including peace and security, noting that the ministry had targets and the need for collaboration with the EU in the area of reforms, capacity building and community policing, which would curb transnational crimes for collective achievements.

“What we are looking at is the community-based policing with intelligence-led and technology-driven. That is the face of every police force globally, the path we like to go. The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPO) has a lot of capacity in that area and if we work together, we will achieve a lot.

“I am seeking every support that can be for the ministry to achieve the renewed hope agenda, which has policing components and none of them can work without it. We are harmonising various police reforms that are in existence, analysing why they are not fully implemented and coming up with what we can achieve within 2-3 years,” she said.

Earlier, Ambassador Isopi, stated that the EU would continue to support all Nigeria’s relevant agencies involved in improving the coordination of policing in the areas of training and capacity building.

She added that the European Union was collaboration with the Nigeria Police while noting that they work together within the framework of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.

“We have been doing capacity and supporting coordination at national, regional, and international levels,” she said, even as she spoke of a new migration programme of EU that will be signed next week, stressing that the agreement was essential because it was a political tool to do more in other areas.

“We are preparing a new phase of our programme to end gender-based violence and we need your cooperation and support to work together. On transactional crimes, it is interesting that we can collaborate.

“We help to establish collaboration between Nigerian institutions and European entities and reaching out to the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPO) and the possibility of signing a memorandum of understanding,” she added.