THERE was a conflict of figures with regards to the performance appraisal of police operations in Zone 5, covering Edo, Delta and Bayelsa States yesterday, as Mr. Hashim Argungu, the Assistant Inspector-General in charge of the zone, gave statistics that were markedly different from those of the Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr Foluso Adebanjo.
While AIG Argungu in a press briefing gave the total number of criminal suspects arrested in the zone as 501 for 2012 and 2013, Adebanjo in a press release said Edo alone contributed 384 to the zonal figures, an indication that the crime rate in Edo was higher during the period under review.
A further breakdown of the performance appraisal from the AIG and the Edo CP’s offices also shows that Edo contributed 106 kidnappers, 117 armed robberies, 23 murder suspects, 63 suspects for unlawful possession of firearms, amongst others, to the Zone, which arrested 331 armed robbers, 171 kidnappers, 29 murder suspects and 72 vandals during the period.
In a similar vein, while the Edo Police Command gained 70 convictions in 2013 alone for criminal suspects, the AIG who did not specify the number of convictions so far said that the zone had 117 cases charged to court during the period.
Besides, there was another conflict in the area of ammunition recovered from suspects as the AIG gave a blanket zonal total of 19,630 for two years, even as the Edo CP gave a breakdown of 117 arms along with 1962 live cartridges and 6447 ammunitions as items recovered in the command during the period.
Nevertheless, Argungu commended the public for helping with vital information that contributed to reduced crime wave in the zone between 2012 and 2013 while Adebanjo credited the command’s achievements to an action plan put in place in 2012.
For the CP, the credit goes to robust daily vehicular patrols, aggressive stop and search and committed daily raids on criminal hideouts by men of his command.
Argungu praised governors in the zone for the numerous assistance rendered to commands in their states in terms of welfare and logistics, adding that the efforts helped the war against crime and criminals.