*says 12 suspects from APC, 2 from PDP arrested
By; SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri
The Borno State Commissioner of Police, CP Abdu Umar has said that 2022 has been full of security challenges which invariably threatened the lives and peaceful coexistence of the good people of Borno and most obvious ones among the challenges include the activities of Boko Haram terrorists, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery,
culpable homicide, drugs dealings among others.
He however, added that “but as you all know, all these challenges are not unsurmontable by the command, as such, it has been
reduced to a greater extent if not totally eliminated.
“The challenges were tackled and overcome due to the review of our operational strategies
acquisition of new specialized operational assets, enhanced intelligence capacity, strong synergy between the police, military and other sisters agencies, application of both kinetic and non-kinetic approach in solving problems as laid down by the IGP
Alkali Usman Baba as part of his policing vision and mission, and above all, the selfless and objective dedication to service by our personnel,” CP Umar said.
He further explained that although the command has been showcasing, its achievements to the public throughout, from time to time, which include over six hundred and thirty six (636) cases have been recorded within the year under review, such as 102 cases of rape, 200 cases of terrorism, 57 cases of culpable homicide , 22 cases of armed robbery, 30 cases of kidnapping , 11 cases of vandalization, 28 cases of drugs and 138 cases of theft.
Others he noted, included cases involving 12 suspects from All Progressives Congress (APC) and two from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for Inciting disturbance, threatening any person with violence during political campaign and unlawful possession of weapons at a political rally, inciting others in a disorderly manner, causing hurt and mischief where all the cases charged to court.
According to him, cases of human trafficking and numerous
numbers of other related cases, saw about five hundred and three (503) suspects been arrested, over three hundred and seventy two
(372) cases prosecuted and three hundred and fourteen (314) suspects convicted for various
offences.
He said, six cases have been transferred to other sister agencies like the military, NSCDC, NDLEA and others.
“Significant numbers of exhibits have been recovered from culprits such as twelve (12) locally made dane gun, three (3) Ak47 riffles , one (1) hand grenade and four (4) Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG),” he inforned.
According to him, others include two thousand nine hundred and fifty (2,950) rounds of 7.62mm NATO ammo, three (3) pump action guns, one (1) battle axe, one hundred and eight (108) cutlasses, knives and swords, four hundred and ten (410) of EXOL tablets , twenty one (21) sachets of Tramadol Capsules, GH two (2) Pentozine injections, twelve (12) arrows and ten (10) kilograms of dry leaves suspected to tbe Indian Hemp among others, were also recovered.
The police commissioner further said that series of stolen personal belongings have also been
recovered from culprits and returned back to the owners such as, stolen vehicles, tricycles, handsets, POS machine and solar inverters amongst others.
Umar called on the political actors to play the game by the rule of the game as the command is always on its toes to ensure the arrest and
prosecution of deviants as 2023 election is close, while urging people of Borno to be law abiding and continue to report any suspicious movement or substance within their area to the nearest police station.
He added that the IGP has introduced special welfare for the deceased police and widows which has been disbursed worth 26 million Naira to widows of slain police officers and men which had kick started on Wednesday this week by the Borno State Command.
The CP however noted that 25 million Naira was donated by Governor Zulum for the deceased welfare package and their families earlier this year, in addition to another 25 million Naira that Zulum donated as revolving funds to the NPF micro finance bank limited as loan facility for the police rank and file benefit.
He revealed also that the North East Development Commission (NEDC) had also trained widows of the deceased police that lost their lives in the case of their service on various skills acquisition and provided them with starter kits, machines and tools among others.
According to him, a number of policemen were killed during the year under review by insurgents, but it has reduced drastically with the voluntary surrendering of the insurgents while Gwoza Mobile Police Training Camp is under renovation by the NPF headquarters, with the aim to resume full activities.
Similarly, CP Abdu said some police divisional headquarters and outposts in Shani, Biu, Kaga, etc that were destroyed by insurgents have been rebuilt by the IGP, while some are under reconstruction like those of Bama, Maiduguri, Gubio and few LGAs as peace has been restored and is gradual;y permanently returning to the state.
He explained further that over 300 miscreants have been arrested for various electoral offences as stringent measures await political thugs banned by the state government while new Electoral Act has banned security members from being used to provide security at polling units during elections.
The Police Commissioner added that the police command has enough security personnel to man affairs with the four police squads and over 2,000 policemen that have been deployed and assigned to take care of the 2023 general elections in Borno State to curb violence or disturbance across the nooks and crannies of the 27 LGAs.
He also said that the command is constituting a standing committee to specifically handle issues of electoral violence in the state, which informed its recent move to arrest and prosecute 14 political party supporters and members for various electoral offences with APC having 12 members and opposition party, PDP two supporters, stressing that,
102 rape cases have been recorded and investigated while the State Ministry of Justice is solely charged with the responsibility of handling the prosecution of all rape cases, not the police.
