The Police Command in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said it has raided some criminal hideouts in various locations in the territory and arrested over 300 suspects.
FCT Commissioner of Police (CP), Benneth Igweh, said this during a briefing on Thursday in Abuja.
He said the suspects, who claimed to be scavengers, were arrested when he led the tactical team of the command to raid the hideouts on Wednesday.
“We have arrested some of them; some are here while about 300 of them are already in the prison, since yesterday.
“We want to clean the city because we have seen that some of them, in the disguise that they are scavengers, end up engaging in robbery,” he said.
Igweh said generators, cutlasses, guns and other valuables suspected to have been stolen from innocent residents were recovered.
Apparently stunned at the scavengers’ method of operation, Igweh said: “These people are not ordinary human beings. But we will get rid of them and peace will be restored in the FCT for residents to enjoy normal life.
“During our operation last night, two sophisticated guns and weapons were recovered from some of these scavengers and I don’t know the type of war they were going to fight, but we will defeat them and cleanse the FCT of these dangerous elements. Our duty is to keep them off the City; it’s no longer business as usual.
“Other items recovered from the scavengers include generators and household valuables.
He said a good number of the scavengers arrested were not Nigerians.”
While responding to questions about the inclusion of minors among their arrest, Igweh said: ‘I’m not a medical doctor nor their parents to ascertain their ages.”
The CP said the suspects would be charged to court upon completion of screening and investigation.
