Police arrest 699 suspects, recover 31 firearms in Ebonyi

The police in Ebonyi State, Nigeria’s south-east, say they have arrested 699 suspects in connection with 372 cases from April 2026 to date.

The state’s Commissioner of Police, Hope Okafor, revealed this on Thursday in Abakaliki during a press conference on the command’s operational achievements.

Mrs Okafor said the arrests comprised 660 males and 39 females.

Of these figures, 309 suspects have been charged in court in connection with 162 cases, while investigations into the remaining cases are ongoing.

“The command recovered 31 assorted firearms, 33 rounds of ammunition of different calibres and three vehicles,” she said.

The police commissioner remarked that the command had stepped up surveillance and intelligence efforts around known flashpoints throughout the state.

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“We have deployed personnel strategically to such locations to forestall breaches of peace and ensure the safety of residents.

“These strategies have helped to reduce the number of skirmishes encountered in the state drastically,” she said.

She warned against criminal activities, emphasising that there would be no refuge for those involved in kidnapping, murder, and other violent crimes in Ebonyi.

On this note, the command will persist in deploying intelligence-led policing and ongoing operations to identify, arrest, and prosecute criminal elements within the state,” Mrs Okafor said.