The Inspector-General of Police, (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, says crime rate in the country has dropped drastically in comparison with two quarters ago.

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According to him, banditry, kidnapping and cultism have decreased.

Addressing state house correspondents after a security meeting at the presidential villa, Thursday, Adamu said that President Muhammadu Buhari urged the security agencies to keep up the good work towards achieving a near-zero crime rate in the country. 

He also justified the current dialogue between bandits in the North East and the State governors and the security agencies saying the move would bring peace to the area. 

The IGP pointed out that dialogue and negotiations were used by the late President Umaru Yar'Adua to solve the militancy problem in the Niger Delta that resulted in the amnesty programme for the repented militants adding that the use of kinetic action sometimes does not solve a problem rather negotiation and dialogue bring peace. 

On what was done differently to improve the security situation in the present quarter, he attributed the situation to the peace meeting with the traditional rulers and all the governors and the leadership of Miyetti Allah where the issues fuelling the crisis were identified.

He said that reduction of crime was noticeable in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna States adding that in June 2019, a total of one hundred and eleven (111) murder cases were reported nationally, while it reduced to ninety-nine (99) in July and eighty (80) in August.

He said One hundred and eighty-three (183) armed robbery incidents were reported in June, with the rate dropping to one hundred and twenty-seven (127) in July and ninety-six (96) in August, 2019. 

A similar decline was noticed in the rate of kidnapping with one hundred and thirty-four (134) incidents recorded in June, which declined to one hundred and twelve (112) in July and further declined to eighty-three (83) in August.

He said he was comparing the Niger-Delta militancy where amnesty was offered to ex-militants with the situation in the northwest and northeast.

On the increasing car theft and burglary in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, he said, the force is monitoring daily activities in the FCT through CCTV Cameras. He said the 20 different monitoring is being expanded to cover the remaining areas.