The Commissioner of Police Kano State North western Nigeria, CP Mohammed Gumel says the crime rate in the most populous state in the nation has drastically dropped in the last three months as words are being matched with action to get criminals out of their den.
CP Gumel started this during an interactive session to mark his 100 days in office, with Journalists from the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Kano.
He said with the aid of community policing, intelligence-led and technology-driven policing various crimes in the ancient commercial city have been pushed to the wall.
“With my 100 days old as CP Kano State Police Command, I’m happy to say that the ugly heads of the violent crimes I met have been pushed to the wall.
“With no single report of undetected Mobile Phone Armed Robbery and related violent crimes during the last month,” he said.
According to him, “over 1,000 suspects were investigated in the period under review with most of them still behind bars awaiting trial for offenses ranging from armed robbery, kidnapping, cattle rustling, culpable homicide, thuggery, having deadly weapons, drugs trafficking, sales and consumption of dried leaves suspected Indian hemp and alike.”
He said in line with the vision and directive of the Acting Inspector-General of Police, the command has been employing both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches in the form of constant raids of criminal hideouts and black spots and collaborative policing where some identified individuals behind the escalation of thuggery activities, social vices and other violent crimes in the State were invited.
“As a result of the employment of these initiatives, a total of one hundred (100) repentant violent criminals and notorious thugs (Yan Daba) have surrendered themselves including their weapons to the Police Command.
“The unrepentant ones are trooping out of the State to escape the heat of smoking them out of their comfort zones. Currently, the repentant ones are working with the Police for the promotion of sustainable peace, economic growth, and development in the State,” he added.
The CP also said that in less than 24 hours, with the aid of technology, six persons who were involved in coursing mayhem during a ceremony at the Hasiya Pediatrics hospital in Kano have been arrested.
He said the arrested suspects were not invited but came to disrupt the programme while chanting slogans for the replacement of the current Emir of Kano Aminu Ado Bayero with the deposed Emir of Kano, Mallam Sanusi lamido Sanusi.
He said items recovered among many, in the period under review include: Sixty-Eight Bags, 659 Parcels and 1063 Wraps of Dried Leaves Suspected to be Indian Hemp, 117 Armed Robbery Suspects.
Others are Thirty-Four Suspected Drug Dealers, 18 Motor Vehicle Thieves, 117 ATM Cards, 82 Mobile Phones, four POS Machines, and eight Laptop Computers, 117 Armed Robbery Suspects, 25 Suspected Kidnappers, Six Suspected Cattle Rustlers, and Seventeen 17 Human Trafficking Suspects.
He said the command would do everything to keep Kano, the second biggest commercial city in Nigeria safe while urging citizens to volunteer actionable information to the police.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
