The Zamfara State Police Commissioner Muhammad Dalijan has announced the arrest of a member of the State House of Assembly and a former local government chairman in relation to banditry in the state.
The Police boss made the announcement on Wednesday while hosting Thomas Parker, the officer in charge of the Counterterrorism Unit of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, at the command headquarters in Gusau, the state capital.
The police boss, however, refused to release the identities of the politician and former council leader arrested in connection with the crime.
Dalijan also encouraged the United Nations to assist in the establishment of a forensic laboratory to solve the difficulty of travelling to Lagos to conduct forensic analysis, as well as to repeat their efforts in Maiduguri, Zamfara.
The police chief also requested support from the worldwide body for training investigators and developing forensic laboratories to speed up the investigation and prosecution of suspected criminals.
He did, however, add that crime rates have decreased in the state as a result of continuous operations by security services, in partnership with Community Protection Guards, to flush out suspected terrorists who had moved from Maiduguri to Zamfara in northwest Nigeria.
In his remarks, Parker stated that the UN delegation was in the state in response to Governor Dauda Lawal’s request for assistance in dealing with the state’s insecurity.
Parker, who claimed to have visited the police command to acquire more information regarding the state’s existential threats, assured Dalijan that the UN was prepared to perform an assessment of the security situation first to understand the causes and problems, as well as how to assist in dealing with the dangers.
