LAGOS, Aug. 8, (Xinhua/GNA) - At least 79 bandits, kidnappers and other criminal suspects have been arrested by the police in the northern state of Kaduna in Nigeria, a senior police officer said Wednesday.
Ali Janga, police chief in charge of the state, told Xinhua in Kaduna that the suspects were arrested at Rijana town, along the Kaduna-Abuja highway and other parts of the state.
Some 35 guns and 439 cattle were recovered from the suspects, the police chief said.
"We are currently reviewing our structural deployment along Kaduna-Abuja Road, Kaduna-Zaria Road and Kaduna-Birnin Gwari Road with a view to make the highways safer for commuters," Janga said.
A series of kidnaps by criminal gangs have been recorded recently in parts of the country. Mohammed Adamu, the inspector general of police, said in May at a security forum in Kaduna, that at least 685 persons were kidnapped in crime-related incidents across the country in the first quarter of 2019.
On Monday, a group of gunmen killed a resident pastor of a church in the state along Kaduna-Abuja highway. The pastor's wife was abducted.
GNA
