by Nnamdi Akpa

The police in Enugu state says it has arrested 503 suspects, including 99 kidnappers in the state between March and December, 2012.

Musa Daura , the state’s police commissioner announced this in Enugu on Thursday at a news conference that was gathered to talk about his command’s activities in 2012.

Daura, gave the breakdown of the arrests as 201 armed robbery suspects, 101 suspected members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra and 37 cultists. Others are 21 car snatchers, six vandals, eight allegedly involved in unlawful possession of firearms and ammunitions and 10 suspects of other related offences.

Mr. Daura said that 14 kidnap victims were rescued in the period under review, while 120 vehicles, 87 arms and ammunitions as well as 150 cartridges were recovered in the period.

He said that out of the 79 armed robbery cases reported, 201 suspects were arrested and prosecuted.

Daura however said that some of the challenges hindering the smooth operation of the command included the inability of some members of the public to give timely and useful information to the police, inadequate patrol vans and other logistics.

He urged members of the public to take advantage of telephone lines provided by the command and various media programmes sponsored by the command to educate them on security and safety.