…Over crimes ranging from kidnappings, armed robberies to IMEI numbers alterations***

The Nigeria Police on Wednesday said they had arrested 108 suspects over kidnapping, drug peddling, unlawful possession of firearms, illicit trade on weapons, possession of prohibited drugs and distribution of the same.

The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Frank Mba disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja, saying that 1,520 live ammunition were recovered.

Mba who said that a total of 30 assorted riffles, including AK47, GPMG riffles and 10 locally fabricated pistols were also recovered from the suspects, stressed that investigations had clearly linked the suspects to various crimes committed.

“We also have an intriguing case of a suspect, who is a citizen of Niger Republic that specialises in altering the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number of telephones.

“The IMEI is a very specialised and unique identity that comes with every manufactured phone, like the unique fingerprint of every individual.

“Every manufactured phone has the unique IMEI number that helps investigators and manufacturers of the products to keep a tab on the location of the products when necessary.

“One of the suspects has developed some software to alter the IMEI number to deny investigators and manufacturers access to the location of the phone,” he said.

Mba said a group of five suspects who specialised in supplying illicit drugs to bandits, kidnappers, and other criminals to commit heinous crimes in the country were also arrested.

He said the trend of police operations in recent times had been focused on persons or criminal elements who act as enablers or facilitators of major crimes.

“We are committed to cutting off arm supply chains, disrupting them, recovery of weapons and bringing illicit traders on these weapons to book.

“The idea is to cut down the supply of illicit drugs and stop their flow to weaken the capacity of the criminals to commit some of these crimes,” he added.

According to him, we are paying attention to their informants and spies who help them to carry out the operations and also return information to them.

He said two suspects who conspired to divert Coca Cola truckload of drinks meant to be sold in Benin to Kaduna were also arrested.

“One of the suspects, a dismissed staff of Coca Cola conspired with his collaborator to secure driving job with the company with fake driver’s license, fake guarantors, fake contact address and other forged documents.

“After the job was secured, a truckload of coca-cola product was given to the employed driver to sell in Benin but was diverted to Kaduna and sold for N3.6 million.

“It took additional efforts of police operatives to arrest the suspects because there was no useful document in coca-cola to facilitate the arrest,” he said.

Mba, therefore, called on the public to ensure diligent background checks on prospective employees to avert recruitment of criminals.

He said a citizen of Niger Republic who had for the past two years, been involved in moving illicit weapons from his country to Nigeria was also been arrested.