Ebubeagu security outfit detained 15 suspected hoodlums on Saturday for allegedly terrorizing inhabitants of Abakaliki metropolis and involvement in other crimes in the state.
The offenders were apprehended following a stop-and-search operation conducted by the Ebubeagu security group in Abakaliki’s streets.
The Special Assistant to the Governor on Internal Security, Eze Ikechukwu Patrick, told journalists in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, that the suspects were detained with locally-made guns and handed over to the Commissioner of Police Ebonyi State Command for further investigation and action.
According to him: “Those boys are the major suspects that are terrorizing the state and we apprehended them yesterday night with a locally made rifle.
“You can see, we handed them over to the police for further investigation. They are fifteen in number but we still have others left, we took to the venue of the crime for investigation, we will equally hand them over to the police.
“We arrested some of them at Gariki the ‘burying ground’, while other ones are arrested at the centenary city. Noon of them is a student. Most of them are cultists.
“We arrested some of them during our stop and search operations. There is peace already in Ebonyi since the arrest of the suspects.
“They are the major Taliban’s that are disturbing the people of the state and we have peacefully handed them over to the police” he states.
When contacted for confirmation, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ebonyi State Command, DSP Loveth Odah, said she was not aware of the development.
“I am not aware that Ebubeagu handed over suspects. They may have arrested and handed over to the police but I’m not aware as the spokesperson of the police command,” she stated.