The police attributed the decline in the number of kidnap cases in the state to the community policing strategy of the command.
The Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adeyele Oyebade, has said that the Command, in the past 11 months, has arrested 28 suspected kidnappers and rescued 21 victims.
Oyebade said 23 out the 28 suspects have been charged to court.
He disclosed this in an interview with Southern City News in Umuahia, the State capital, on Tuesday, July 18.
The police boss attributed the decline in the number of kidnap cases in the state to the community policing strategy of the command.
He said the police have maintained a constant interaction with the residents in the state at different levels – engaging traditional institutions, principals and proprietors of private schools, bankers, markets unions and the eminent people’s forum.
Oyebade said, “Whatever we are doing is to ensure the safety of lives and property in the state because we cannot compromise the fundamental human rights of Abia residents.
“When we talk of the relevance of Aba in this context, we must know that Aba is the Japan of Africa for now. Businesses are thriving there and people are coming from all over the country and abroad to invest in Aba.
“We cannot but continue to update our strategies to ensure that Aba and even Abia as a whole is safe for economic activities to thrive.
“We want to thank members of the public for better cooperation so far; we kept receiving better response from members of the public.
“Information has been coming and we have been using such information to the best of our ability to nip heinous crimes in the bud and we are going to be more responsible and accountable to members of the public.”
Incessant kidnapping has become one of the major security challenges in Nigeria today.
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The declining economic situation in the country has worsened this, as more young men and women resort to crimes – with kidnapping and internet fraud being the most seemingly lucrative of them all.
According to the Police, at least more than two cases of kidnap cases are recorded across the country daily.
The kidnappers demand huge sums of money from their victims’ families as ransom, as seen in the case of Evans, the billionaire kidnapper who was arrested recently in Lagos.
