By Francis Sadhere 

The Delta State Commissioner of Police, C.P. Alkali Baba Usman today assured people in the state that the police will not spare any effort in reducing all kinds of criminality to the nearest minimum.

Some of the suspected cultists paraded at the Area Command Warri, today.

The Delta State police boss gave this assurance at the Warri Area Command, Warri while parading 35 suspected cultist and four armed robbers/kidnappers  arrested at various locations in Warri and its environs.

C.P. Alkali, however, appealed to all Deltans to continue to support the police and other security agencies with useful information on criminals and their activities, stressing  that such information and collaboration were necessary instruments for effective crime control in the society.

He added that to ensure roads and highways are safe for travelers, “the Safe Highway Patrol vehicles allocated to the command by the Inspector General of Police, IGP Solomon Arase have been deployed to various parts of the state with well trained personnel to police all highways within the state on 24 hours basis.

He appealed to youths in the state to shun all forms of cultism and embrace more meaningful engagements, warning that the police will not spare any youth caught engaging in criminal activities.

Speaking to journalists while parading the suspects, the Police Commissioner said four suspected armed robbery/kidnapers identified as Vincent Onajaye (m), Alfred Good (m), Saudi Osiabemre (m) and Jafaru Yakubu (m) were arrested on the 11th and 12th of July at Oghara and Agbarho respectively, for robbing one Helen Ogiden (f) off items worth N1.1m at her home.

He also said that 35 cultists were arrested by the police when they got information that some suspected cultist were gathering at Usiefurun, Uti Street, Warri Township Stadium Road, Warri/Sapele Road and Jakpa Road, all in Warri metropolis.

C.P. Alkali added the Warri Area Command on 3rd July 2015, gunned down three armed robbers/kidnappers when the Surveillance Patrol team from Enerhen Division while on routine surveillance patrol ran into an armed robbery operation along Warri/Sapele road, near Zenith Bank, Enerhen where they met one Abada Magdalene (f) of Onogho Street Warri, screaming that she has just been robbed by three armed men.

He added that in a bid to escape from the police the armed robbers on seeing the police opened fire on them and the police gallantly replied with their superior fire power and injured them arrested them and took them the Warri Central Hospital where they gave up the ghost.

Some of the items recovered from the armed robbers and cultist include 11 cartridges and two vehicles.

One of the suspects who gave his name as Lucky Umukoro (m), who spoke to our reporter, denied ever being a cultist saying he was merely arrested by the police while boarding a tricycle to his house.

Umukoro said; “I am not a cultist. The police arrested us when they stopped the keke I was in. One of the boys that was in the keke with us ran away and left his beret inside the keke but the police said I am the owner of the beret and that I am a cultist. I told them the beret was not mine but they did not believe me and they brought me to the police station.”

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