The Katsina State Police Command on Monday said it has in the last four months rescued 171 kidnapped victims and neutralised five suspected kidnappers in the state.

The command’s spokesman, ASP Abubakar Sadiq, told journalists on Monday at its headquarters that 1,005 suspects were also arrested in connection with 853 reported cases, while 395 cases are undergoing prosecution in various competent courts of law in the state.

According to Sadiq, the command carried out the operations between June 1 and September 30 as part of its efforts to curb the menace of banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, and other forms of crime and criminality in the state.

In the course of the campaign, the police reportedly arrested 53 suspected armed robbers, 82 suspected kidnappers, 73 murder suspects, and 90 suspected rapists.

In the same vein, 707 suspects were arrested for various offences such as criminal force, intimidation, being in possession of hard drugs/dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp, cultism, inciting disturbance, and belonging to a gang of brigands, among others.

The Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Aliyu, paraded 15 suspects for committing various offences, saying though the period under review had been challenging for the command, it recorded a significant number of successes.

Aliyu, however, warned recalcitrant criminals to either surrender or be dealt with according to the extant laws of the land.

Items recovered include four AK-47 rifles, six locally made guns, 517 live rounds of ammunition, over 600 suspected rustled animals, 12 suspected stolen motor vehicles and motorcycles, 17 suspected stolen phones, 568 sachets of D5 tablets, 180 wraps of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp, 23 packets of Exzole tablets, 411 packets of rebozel tablets, and five packs of Diezole tablet.

“The fight against crime and criminality is so dynamic and not an easy one but I urge you to continue to project the hard and good work of the Police and other security agencies to the general public,” the police commissioner said.