As part of ongoing efforts by the security apparatus in Ondo State to normalize the increasing crime rate in the state, particularly the kidnap cases which have for some months been giving residents and travellers huge concern, men of the state police command have apprehended two suspected leaders of the kidnapping ring in the state.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Femi Joseph, the suspects who have been identified as Jahae Mohammed and Jimoh Ahmed, were arrested when the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mudashiru Abudulahai led 87 other policemen from the command into the forest.
“The kidnappers were arrested at Oba/Ose area in Akoko South West local government area of the state today by the police special patrol team were Jahae Mohammed and Jimoh Ahmed led by DCP Mudashiru Abudulahai, the suspects were identified to be the leaders of kidnappers gang terrorising the peace of travellers and people of the area.
“The combined team of police formation was led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP Mudashiru Abudulahai, Area Commander, Iwaro-Akoko, ACP Musiliu O. Aliu, Police Public Relation Officer, myself (PPRO) and the DPO Oba-Akoko, with nothing less than eighty-seven men and officers drawn from Anti-kidnapping squad, Anti-cultist squad, Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) and men and officers of the Area command, comb the forest reserve at Oba-Akoko for almost five (5) hours plus before the arrest were made.
“The exercise that took men and officers of the police patrol team twenty-kilometre treck inside the forest reserve along the Oba/Ose-Akoko road, where the team located two (2) points where the kidnappers operated and were destroyed, as the kidnappers had already fled before the arrival of the security operatives.
“At the two kidnappers locations in the thick forest, objects such as clothes suspected to be from their victims, shoes and cudgels were seen, as the DCP Abudulahai ordered for the destruction of the den immediately.”
The PPRO also emphasized that surveillance would be intensified in the area with the aim of tracking the fleeing kidnappers terrorising residents and travellers and people of the state, adding that such exercise combing all suspected forest and areas across the state will be continued to rid-off the state from criminals.
Earlier, the state Police Commissioner, Gbenga Adeyanju had stated that the police authority will make the state inhabitable for kidnappers and those with criminal intension, adding that all police formations across the state have been mandated to double their efforts at making sure that the state is crime free.
Recall that for some months, kidnappers have been terrorizing the state with 15 kidnap cases recorded within the spate of eight weeks.
The security situation has however led to the call by residents to the Inspector General of Police that the current Commissioner of Police in the state, Gbenga Adeyanju, should be redeployed.
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