The Anambra State Police Command has intensified its ongoing raids on criminal hideouts across the state, arresting a suspected member of a secessionist group and five other suspects, including a female alleged drug dealer.
The operations, which were carried out by operatives of the Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU) on Thursday, followed directives of the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Olatunji Rilwan Disu, and the intensified security strategy of the state command to tackle violent crimes, cultism, drug trafficking and other criminal activities.
According to a statement issued on Friday by the Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, SP Ikenga Tochukwu, VCRU operatives, acting on credible intelligence, arrested a 65-year-old man, Ifeanyi Ogbuagbo, at Umudioka on Thursday evening.
A search of his residence reportedly led to the recovery of an Army uniform and expended ammunition shells concealed in a black polythene bag.
The police said preliminary findings indicated that Ogbuagbo was allegedly linked to a criminal gang agitating for self-government.
The suspect has been taken into custody for further investigation, while police authorities said efforts were ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the recovered items and his alleged activities.
In a separate operation carried out the same evening, police operatives stormed a suspected criminal hideout in Ekwulobia, Aguata Local Government Area, following credible intelligence.
The raid resulted in the arrest of six suspects identified as, Chisom Okafor, 25, female; Onyedika Moses, 36; Iruka Nwaonu, 30; Joseph Nwankwo, 36; Chukwujekwu Nwoso, 32; and Akanimo Orok, 40.
The police said a sizeable quantity of dried weeds suspected to be Cannabis Sativa, alongside other substances suspected to be illicit drugs, was recovered during the operation.
The Commissioner of Police, Anambra State Command, CP Nnanna Oji Ama, reiterated the command’s determination to sustain intelligence-led operations, strategic patrols and coordinated raids aimed at dismantling criminal networks and disrupting illicit drug activities across the state.
Oji Ama also directed that raids on criminal hideouts, drug-selling points and other identified areas of criminal activity be intensified and sustained.
He urged residents to continue providing the police with credible information that could assist security agencies in identifying criminal elements and preventing crime.The suspects remain in police custody as investigations continue.
