Plateau Police to treat cow thieves as armed robbers – CP

The Plateau Police Command on Tuesday said it would henceforth regard cattle rustlers as armed robbers.

The Police Commissioner, Mr Chris Olakpe, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos that anybody caught indulging in cattle theft would be prosecuted as an armed robber.

"We shall start considering all those caught stealing the herdsmen's cattle as armed robbers.

"The armed robbers usually carry arms and ammunition to commit their offence and the cattle thieves do the same thing.

"The robbers most of the times kill their victims during their operations and the cattle thieves also indulge in killing their victims before carting away the cows.

"We are going to charge anybody caught stealing cows before the court under the same section of law with the armed robbers," he said.

Olakpe said the command decided to take the measure in order to discourage the youth that had been involved in this dirty business.

"Our investigation has shown that drugs and cattle theft are the two causes of violence in Plateau North Senatorial Zone.

"We are ready to checkmate the two crimes so that we can finally have peace," the commissioner said.

Olakpe called on community, religious and opinion leaders to caution their wards and children against the two "evils."

He warned that anybody caught with drugs and stolen cattle would be dealt with no matter the family he came from.

"We will not fold our arms and allow some hoodlums to be disrupting the hard earned peace, " the commissioner said.

He appealed to members of the public to assist the command by providing information about criminals, saying that any information received would treated as confidential.