The Nasarawa State Police Command on Thursday paraded 46 suspects for armed robbery and kidnapping.

Of this number, nine were arrested for armed robbery, while the remaining 38 were nabbed for participating in various cases of kidnapping across the state.

The state Commissioner of Police, Bola Longer, who paraded the suspects before newsmen in Lafia, gave credit to officers and men of the command operating under the IGP’s special operation codenamed, ‘Operation Puff-Adder.’

He explained that the arrests could not have been possible without the support and cooporation of members of the public who provided actionable intelligence.

Longer said, “We thank God for the initiative of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Muhammed Adamu, who introduced Operation Puff-Adder.”

Giving a further breakdown of the arrests, he said five suspected kidnappers were arrested on October 18, 2019, in Akum village, Mararaba Udege, in the Nasarawa Local Government Area.

The suspects who are members of the same family allegedly hired some Fulani herders to help them kidnap one of their brothers who earlier refused to give them the sum of N1.5m they had earlier demanded from him.

According to the police boss, after regaining his freedom, the victim ran into members of the gang of kidnappers in Loko and drew the attention of the police.

Acting on the information, the police boss said a special squad led by members of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad cordoned off the area and arrested the five suspects.

On the issue of “torture chambers” masking as rehabilitation centres, the police commissioner said no such centre had been found anywhere in the state.

Longer said, “I have already deployed all the DPO’s across various local governments in the state to ensure that they carry out a thorough investigation to uncover any such home in the state.”

He appealed to members of the public to continue to provide the police with information that will lead to the arrest of criminal elements in the society.

The police boss promised that all those arrested will be taken to court as soon as investigations into the matter were concluded.