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The Abia Police Command has said 38 of its officers to kidnappers in the last few months.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Jonathan Johnson, made this known on Monday in Umuahia, while presenting the arms surrendered by some fleeing kidnappers to the state's governor, Theodore Orji.

Mr. Johnson said 10 officers were injured during the operations, six of them had been discharged from the hospital while the remaining four were still receiving treatment.

The commissioner said that the arms were recovered during the second amnesty programme, which the state government cancelled and that that the programme was yielding results before its cancellation.

Mr. Johnson said the arms were recovered in the kidnappers' camps.

``Some of the arms are 20 AK 47, 12 locally made AK 47, seven assault rifles, one general purpose machine gun, four rocket launchers, 15 pistols and 12 dynamites...

``Others are 23 double-barrelled guns 106 assorted magazines, gas cylinders, tool boxes and one G3riffle,'' he said.

The commissioner thanked the government for empowering the police to combat the crime, stressing that those who died during the operations had paid the supreme price to make Abia free of kidnapping.

Speaking while inspecting the arms, Mr. Orji said the police should compile the names of the dead officers for the state government to compensate their families.

The governor expressed the sympathy with the police command the bereaved families, stressing that Abia is now a safe heaven for investors.

``There was a time when Abia was synonymous with kidnapping. We tried the amnesty option and it failed before inviting the army to come to our aid,'' he said.

Mr. Orji said that the second amnesty programme was partially successful because of the harvest of arms by the committee.

The governor commended the police for their gallantry. ``I know we have efficient police force in the country but they lack adequate fire power to combat crime and criminals.

``You cannot expect a policeman to confront a criminal with a rapid machine gun,'' he remarked.

The governor stressed that his administration would continue to provide the enabling environment for the force.

When next you are flagged down at a checkpoint by policemen, especially at lonely spots between the hours of 9pm and 5am, you need to be careful and more vigilant as the men in black may not be genuine policemen.

A gang of armed robbers arrested by the police in Lagos State on their way from a successful operation at a spot in Ijebu Ode area of Ogun State, told PUNCH METRO that what one needed to rob successfully along the route were confidence, torch and black clothes that look like police uniform.

The quartet of Anayo Nwaga, Christian Obika, Johnson Onie and Chukwudi Nwankwo, were arrested by policemen attached to Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Government.

The Lagos State police spokesman, Mr. Frank Mba, who spoke with our correspondent, said what attracted the policemen to the suspects when they were stopped at a checkpoint was a big wound on the arm of one of them.

Mba said, “Further search into the bus they were driving revealed a number of telephone sets, which obviously were not their own because they were packed in a bag. There was also a large amount of money on them among other things. The policemen became suspicious and decided to take the suspects with them.

“It was not long before one of them broke down and confessed to the policemen how they robbed unsuspecting motorists at a spot at Ijebu Ode, pretending to be policemen.”

Obika, who divulged the information that put other suspects in trouble, said he was reluctant to join the gang because of the risks involved.

“But I have to do the job because I need the money. For instance now, my father has just died and I need a lot of money for the burial,” he said.

Obika said they usually selected a lonely spot on the expressway. According to him, “We are usually in colour clothes and we drive to the place like any other drivers. We usually operate around Ijebu Ode because there are so many lonely spots there.,

“Once we select our spot, we change into black clothes and cut some sticks from the nearby bush. We will wrap these sticks with black celotape and in darkness, it will look like gun. We will them mount a road block and we will start flashing oncoming vehicles with our torch. Once the driver slows down, we quickly assess the occupants and once we suspect that they might have things in their vehicles, we will stop them and rob them. Some of us will point the stick at them, making it look as if we will shoot them if they don‘t cooperate. But we have never killed or injured anybody during operation.”

Chukwudi also said the aim of the gang was not to injure people but to get money from them “in order to survive and we don‘t even do it everyday.”

But Mba said the police would need to conclude their investigation before arraigning the suspects in court.

He said, “However, the confession of these men has brought to the mind the need to be careful when driving. If people stop you on the highway, be sure that they are policemen before you stop.

“And if the journey is not absolutely necessary in the night, why not make it in the day time? The police will not however stop at ridding the society of bad elements like these suspects.”