By HAMZA SULEIMAN

The Borno Police Command on Thursday said a total of 503 suspects have been arrested in the state in the past 12 months.

The Commissioner of Police (CP), Abdu Umar, disclosed this in Maiduguri while appraising the achievements of command in 2022.

Umar said about 636 cases of various crimes were recorded within the year, out of which over 372 were prosecuted and 314 suspects convicted for various offences.

He said the offences include; 102 cases of rape, 200 cases of terrorism, 57 culpable homicides, 22 armed robberies and 30 cases of kidnapping.

Others were 11 cases of vandalism, 28 drug trafficking cases, 138 theft offences and three cases of human trafficking, as well as a number of other offences.

He explained that six cases were transferred to sister agencies like the Military, NSCDC, NDLEA and others.

The CP said a number of arms and other items were recovered within the period under review.

He listed the items as 12 locally made Dane guns, 3 AK 47 riffles, one hand grenade, 4 RPGs, 2, 950 rounds of 7.62mm NATO ammunition, and 3 Pump Action guns.

Umar said others were one Battle Axe, 108 cutlasses, knives and swords, 410 Exol tablets, 21 sachets of tramadol capsules and 12 arrows, among others.

He added that series of stolen personal belongings recovered, including vehicles, tricycles, handsets, POS machine, solar inverter, were returned to their owners.

The CP said though 2022 was full of security challenges, a lot was done by the command and other security agencies to greatly reduce the menace.

“Most obvious ones among the challenges are the activities of Boko Haram terrorists, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, culpable homicide, drug dealings, among others.

“But as you all know, all these challenges are not unsurmountable by the command as such it has been reduced to a greater extent if not totally eliminated,” he said.

Umar attributed the successes recorded by the command to the review of operational strategies, acquisition of new specialized operational assets, enhanced intelligence and strong synergy with other security agencies.

He said that the command had also adopted kinetic and non-kinetic methods in solving the security challenges as directed by the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba.

He expressed appreciation to the IGP, Gov. Babagana Zulum and other partners for their massive support to the command.

“The IGP has renovated all the police stations that were destroyed by insurgents and has prioritized the welfare of personnel and their families.

The Borno Government is not left out, the Governor donated about nine APCs to the command to support us in carrying out our activities.

“Gov. Babagana Zulum has also approved N50 million to support the welfare of widows of our personnel who died in active service.

“He also promised that he was going to provide houses to our personnel.

“We therefore want to thank the governor, NEDC, NERI, UN and other partners for their tremendous support to the Borno command,” he said. (NAN)

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