Ondo Police declares war on kidnappers, raids hideouts in Ore

*Arrest 30-year-old farmer for killing septuagenarian

Worried by the rising spate of kidnapping, the Ondo State Police Command has declared a total war on hoodlums using some the thick forest of the state to abduct and keep unsuspecting members of the public to demand for ransom from families of their victims.

The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Olugbenga Adeyanju, made the declaration at the weekend when he led top officers of the police command with journalists to burst some kidnappers’ hideout on the Ore-Lagos expressway in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.

Although no arrest was made during the sting operation to the Ore road, Mr. Adeyanju said the police was battle-ready to flush out the kidnappers using the state as a hideout to cause unrest with their nefarious activities.

He noted that the Ore express road seems to be gradually becoming unsafe for motorists and travelers who now find it difficult to journey through the route at night due to fear of possible attack and the reported cases of abduction.

The raid by the police is coming barely a week that the 32 Artillery Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Ondo state invaded the hideout of the kidnappers within the Akoko axis of the state.

The police boss has, however, reiterated that the police will not relent in its effort to tackle the rising cases of kidnapping in order to ensure that all roads in the state is totally safe for motorists plying the state.

Mr. Adeyanju also explained that the command has met with the various Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) in the state as parts of means to curb the nefarious activities of the hoodlums using the heavy forests to perpetrate evils.

He explained that conscious steps is being taking by the police to rid out kidnappers out of the state with the commencement of meetings with key stakeholders in the security sector of state.

“I want to appeal to the people of the state not to relent in their act of giving useful information that could lead to the arrest of these criminals,” he said.

Also, the Police have arrested a thirty-year-old cocoa farmer, Segun Akande for killing a sixty -five year old grandmother, Mary Ogundiran at Ofosu, Idanre Local Government Area of the State.

Akande was arrested with nine other different suspected criminals by the men of the Anti-Robbery Squad of the police command in Akure at the weekend.

The killer suspect was paraded before journalist by the commissioner of police at the command’s headquarters in Akure.

He accused and confessed killing the deceased [old woman] of repeatedly plucking cocoa pods in his farm after he had issue lots of warning.

“She always steal in my farm but on this unfortunate day I caught her but I never knew she will die” Akande said.

Parading the remaining suspects, the police said three of them belonged to a cult group known as ‘Arobaga’ noting that one of them, Oyebuchi Aningo, who claimed he was forcefully initiated to the confraternity, was arrested for raping a seventeen year-old girl.

Mr. Adeyanju, the state police commissioner said that those arrested would be charge to court for the law to take its cause adding that the command is doing everything possible to rid the state of criminals.

‘Tosin Ajuwon, Akure