From Ali Abare, Lafia
Police authorities yesterday paraded 16 armed robbery suspects, including one dismissed police corporal accused of throwing a teargas canister into a Church last week.
Parading the suspects before journalists at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Lafia, state Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris, noted that the parade was a demonstration of the willingness of the Command to reduce crime in the state to the barest minimum.
The CP disclosed that 80 percent of arms recovered from suspects are locally manufactured in the state, stressing that there is every need to fish out the local gun factories with a view to stopping their illegal activities.
While expressing gratitude to members of the public for assisting the police, CP Idris said the relationship should be sustained so that crime rate can be reduced in the state.
Also paraded alongside the robbery suspects are 5 cultists and 4 thieves.
Arms recovered from the suspects include: 4 locally made pistols, one locally-made AK 47, one Dane gun and one water pressure gun.
Also recovered were three 7.62 mm rounds live ammunition, five 0.9 mm rounds of live ammunition and one round of live cartridge.
Three motorcycles, 30 sheets of zinc roofing and one jack knife were equally recovered from the suspects.
Fielding questions from journalists, the CP explained that one Jonathan Gyanet, a dismissed police corporal, was being paraded for throwing a teargas canister into the premises of a Church, the Transformation Assembly Church, located in Akwanga.
He explained that the suspect, an indigene of Kaduna state, was dismissed from the force as deserter while serving as a specialists work personnel at Police College, Kaduna.
