The Jigawa State Police Command has said that the state is experiencing a rise in kidnapping and rape cases in 2020 as compared to 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic that ravaged the country and forced a lot of people to remain indoors.
The state Commissioner of Police, Usman Sule Gomna, while briefing journalists in Dutse on the achievements of his command, noted that people were pushed into the act of kidnapping because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that followed.
He, however, noted that the command, in collaboration with the traditional and religious leaders as well as other stakeholders have been able to substantially tackle the crime.
A breakdown of statistics from the command indicated that while the state experienced only four cases of kidnapping in 2019, 17 were recorded in 2020.
Similarly, the police chief said that cases of rape and indecent assaults rose from 61 in 2019 to 72 in 2020, while cases of unnatural offences rose from 13 in 2019 to 24 in 2020.
In the same vein, armed robbery, forgery, housebreaking and theft increased during the period under review, according to the statistics.
However, the commissioner said there was a decrease in some offences such as murder and culpable homicide, grievous harm, assaults and other related offences.
He said cases of murder decreased from 54 in 2019 to 46 in 2020; grievous harm decreased from 17 in 2019 to 13 in 2020 while other offences generally decreased from 83 in 2019 to 81 in 2020.
Gomna stated that property worth N11.7 million were damaged or stolen in 2019 as against N4.6 million worth of property damaged or stolen in 2020. Similarly, the value of recovered property in 2019 stood at N9.5 million while N4.8 million worth of property were recovered in 2020.
