The Imo State Commissioner of Police, Aboki Danjuma, says the command has increased police presence in Owerri West local government area of the state to combat violent crimes in the area.
He said the move is intended to curb the upsurge kidnappings, raping and murder in a forest spanning across Federal University of Technology, Owerri; Nekede, Ihiagwa, Avu and Obinze communities, all in the Owerri West LGA.
A statement by the police public relations officer (PPRO) in the state, Henry Okoye in Owerri on Friday disclosed that the CP’s action is propelled by the recent discovery of three decomposing corpses in the forest, believed to be victims of kidnapping.
The CP had a few days ago led his men into the forest, exhumed three bodies of kidnap victims and arrested five suspects.
The forest had been serving as a den for suspected herdsmen-kidnappers who had been terrorising the Owerri-Port Harcourt Expressway axis of the state.
Many kidnapped victims and their relatives had severally accused Fulani herdsmen of abducting them or their relatives in that axis.
