Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force have recovered 115 stolen vehicles and rescued 387 kidnap victims nationwide in one month.
The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said at a news conference on Monday in Abuja that the successes were recorded during several operations nationwide in January.
The police spokesman said 960 suspects were arrested by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in the month under review.
He said 244 of the suspects were arrested over armed robbery, 170, kidnapping, 240 murder/homicide, 53, unlawful possession of prohibited firearms, 130, rape and 123, cultism.
Adejobi said 172 firearms and 3,134 ammunition of various calibers, including 12 rounds of 7.88 mm ammunition, two AK-47 rifles, eight fabricated AK-47 rifles and four fabricated revolver guns were recovered from the suspects.
The police spokesman said other items recovered were five fabricated semi-automatic pistols, 11 AK-47 magazines and 1,121 AK-47 live ammunition.
He said eight of the suspects were arrested by operatives of the IRT in Plateau over gun running and unlawful possession of Prohibited Firearms.
Adejobi said the suspects were arrested following credible intelligence on activities of a gun running syndicate in Plateau.
He said the only female suspect in the syndicate had confessed during police investigation that she sold 900 rounds of AK-47 live ammunition to one of the male suspects.
According to him, one locally made pistol, two rounds of 7.88 mm live ammunition, eight fabricated AK-47 rifles, four fabricated revolver guns and three fabricated semi-automatic pistols were recovered from the syndicate.
He said two AK-47 magazines and 1,105 AK-47 live ammunition were also recovered from the suspects.
Adejobi said building on the momentum of the operation, operatives of the IRT on Jan. 28 arrested two additional members of the syndicate.
He said the operatives recovered eight fabricated AK-47 rifles, four fabricated revolver rifles, three fabricated semi-automatic pistols and two fabricated AK-47 magazines concealed in the doormat of a red Volkswagen station wagon.
“The suspects confessed to having taken delivery of the recovered firearms from a notorious firearms fabricator, currently at large,” he said.
Adejobi said efforts were being intensified to apprehend the fleeing firearms fabricator and others fabricating guns and supplying to wrong hands in the country. (NAN)
