The Commissioner of Police in Kano State, Mr Mohammed Gumel, has explained how the command successfully arrested 1,000 suspected criminals within three months of his deployment to the state.
Gumel said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano that the feat was achieved through community policing, inter-agency collaboration, and kinetic measures.
He said that the synergy yielded results, as the 1,000 suspected criminals were all remanded and prosecuted.
“I conducted a security survey on locations where emerging crimes were taking place.
“We now moved into sensitising members of the public to accept the police as friends who are ready to help them in order to fight crime and criminality in society.
“I went round by visiting the traditional and religious institutions as well as the people from the private sector, those who are responsible for building the economy of the state,” he said.
Gumel said that apart from getting the buy-in of the stakeholders to his plan for community policing, the command mapped out strategies to achieve that.
“We crime-marked the area for crimes that were disturbing the populace, especially issues of supremacy and fights.
“Street boys who engage in armed robbery, snatching of cell phones, terrorising people at traffic lights, in the marketplace; there was nowhere that was peaceful in the state.
“We first launched various kinetic approaches to fish them out; the hardened ones were arrested and investigated.
“Within the first three months, I was able to take off the streets over 1,000 suspected criminals, and they were all prosecuted in court.”
The CP also said the command synergized with the judiciary to ensure prosecution of suspected criminals.
“What helped us in even keeping the situation quite better is the kind of discussions we had with the judiciary as well as my legal team.
“We looked at the provisions of the law as to anybody who uses weapons in the form of a sharp knife or any instrument to extort property under fear of death.
“I think we all agreed that it is armed robbery instead of the previous times where they are charged to court for offences like theft and ordinary offences, simple offences.”
Gumel said that this enabled the prosecutors to now charge the suspects for armed robbery, a non-bailable offence.
He said before now, “When they are arrested and charged to court, the next thing is, you’ll see them back; but armed robbery is a capital offence that has to go through the High Court.
“So these 1,000 suspects that we prosecuted in three months have been behind bars; they are undergoing trial for armed robbery; none of them has been released.”
The CP said other miscreants, who willingly surrendered to the police, were offered amnesty and special employment as constabularies to help fight crime.
“Up to 50 of them were first mobilised; I distributed them; they are now working with the police as special constabulary, fishing out the hardened ones in those locations.
“To God be the glory; today, Kano is very peaceful.
“Any criminal that comes in to perpetuate evil, these people will detect him, they will inform the police, then the police will do the operation, and the people will be arrested.
“We have displayed a lot of arrests and recoveries, especially capital offences.
“Most people now are afraid of coming to Kano to commit crime,” he said.
Gumel commended all personnel of the command—the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Civil Defence—for their joint efforts to fight crime in Kano State and its environs. (NAN) (Vanguard)