The Police, on Monday, said it had arrested four suspects and neutralised two in connection with the Oct. 23 deadly bank robbery in Otukpo area of Benue.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Olukayode Egbetokun, said this in Abuja at a meeting with strategic police managers, consisting of officers from the rank of Commissioner of Police (CP).

“You will recall the deadly Otukpo bank robbery of Oct. 23, during which the Otukpo Divisional Police Officers (DPO) and many other innocent Nigerians lost their lives.

“Huge sum of money was carted away from the three commercial banks that were robbed during the operation,” he said.

The IGP said the unrelenting efforts of police personnel, acting on both human and technically-generated intelligence, eventually paid off.

He said the armed robbers were traced to their hideouts, where two of them were neutralised and four others arrested.

Mr Egbetokun said the four suspects were currently in the custody of the Nigeria Police, assisting the force in its investigation to track other fleeing members of the gang.

The IGP said nine AK47 riffles and 4,013 rounds of live ammunition were recovered from the suspects.

He said police operatives, during a covert rescue operation carried out in Rivers and Katsina States on Dec. 14 and 15, rescued 23 kidnapped victims.

Mr Egbetokun said the victims rescued included students of the Federal University, Dutsinma in Katsina, adding that two notorious bandits were killed during the operation.

He said the Nigeria Police had, in the last 10 weeks, recorded significant successes in reducing crime rate across the country.

According to him, this was attained through a combination of efforts involving intelligence-led operations, community engagements and proactive policing.

He said police operatives, within 10 weeks, rescued 134 kidnapped victims and arrested 375 suspected kidnappers and 578 armed robbery suspects in various operations across the country.

The IGP said 431 suspects were arrested for rape and other sexual-related offences, 724 were arrested over murder/homicide cases, and 2,343 were apprehended for other criminal offences.

He said 433 of the suspects arrested over other criminal offences were suspected cultists.

Mr Egbetokun said 419 firearms of various types and a total of 4,235 different calibres of ammunition were recovered from the suspects.

(NAN)