The Bauchi State Police Command has alerted the general public of plans by some politicians to disrupt the relative peace in the state in order to achieve their selfish political gains.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the state Commissioner of Police, Garba Baba Umar, such politicians use misguided elements otherwise known as SARA-SUKA who usually under the influence of hard drugs supplied by their sponsors use offensive weapons such as machetes, knives, cutlasses etc to intimidate, assault, maim and even kill their perceived rivals including innocent citizens in the state.

The miscreants also engaged in other forms of criminal activities such as abduction, rape, extortion and house breaking among others thereby causing serious security threats in the state.

Worried by these emergent trends of thuggery and other nefarious activities, the Commissioner said, the Command has reviewed its crime prevention strategies and embarked on intensive patrol, vigorous raid of black spots, flash points and other criminal hideouts in order to nip in the bud, all forms of thuggery, crime and criminality.

“These strategies started yielding positive results as during the week under review the command arrested over 150 suspected thugs alias SARA-SUKA from various black spots within the state and recovered the following exhibits; knives, machetes, shisha pots, packets of Tramadol tablets and other assorted drugs suspected to be hard drugs.

“Other items included seven packets of vulcanizing solutions, 34 wraps of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp and six motorcycles suspected to be stolen.

“Traditional rulers, district heads, religious leaders, parent and ward heads are strongly enjoined to counsel their subjects, adherents, children and wards to refrain from any action or activities that will go contrary to the tenets of our criminal laws as the Command is determined to fully enforce the law prohibiting thugs and thuggery duly signed by the then Executive Governor in April, 2008.

“Meanwhile, the Command is determined to ensure that criminals have no hiding place in the state. It must be emphasised here that safety and security is not the sole responsibility of security agencies alone, hence members of the public must play a vital role towards ensuring peace by availing the Police with useful information that will be instrumental to the unbundling of criminal acts and tendencies.

“Members of the public are hereby enjoined to be law abiding and refrain from acts capable of causing a breach to public peace while endeavouring to report any suspicious movement of persons within their neighborhood through the following police emergency number 08151849417.”

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