Police on Wednesday paraded 30 people arrested for various crimes ranging from car snatching, kidnapping, murder and cultism in Anambra State.
The Commissioner of Police in Anambra state Mr. Hassan Karma said the arrest of the criminals mostly from Obosi in Idemili North Local Government Area of the state was carried out by a combined operation of the Police, Army and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) who were “united in seeing that Anambra people sleep with two eyes closed.”
Karma praised the effort of the combined force and counselled other states to emulate from the combined synergy of the combined force for effective crime fighting.
Among those arrested were syndicates and murderers that specialized in vandalizing telecommunication masts and 19 students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and Federal Polytechnic, Oko suspected to be members of the cult, Vikings.
Among items recovered from the cultists were ten locally made pistols, which police said were usually put to other uses than cultism initiation, ten axes, ten bags of Indian hemp, a drum, black caps, red candles and mobile phones believed to have been snatched from people.
Karma advised other students to learn from the experience of those caught and say no to cultism. He stated that Obosi had become the headquarters of secret cult in Anambra state and that the police took time to arrest all the ring leaders of the cult groups, while some fled to other states.
Also, the police paraded 48 repentant cultists who Karma said volunteered to renounce their membership of different cult groups. He praised the state Governor Willie Obiano who he said has given them every support to succeed in crime fighting.
As stated by Karma, “the 2014 Christmas celebration in Anambra State was very peaceful and the security agencies want this year’s Christmas to be even more peaceful.”