The Ondo State Commander of the Security Network, Amotekun, on Wednesday, said the corps has foiled three kidnap attempts in the state within the last two weeks, while 19 suspects were arrested in connection with the kidnap attempts.
Adeleye who disclosed this during the parade of 36 suspected criminals said the 19 suspects were arrested at some black spots in the Northern senatorial district of the state based on intelligence gathering.
According to him, the suspects were rounded up while laying siege on the highway to kidnap vehicles that would pass by, saying the men of the Amotekun were able to round them up based on tip-off.
Adeleye said the suspects were arrested in conjunction with other security agencies in the state, foiling the kidnap attempts while all suspects involved were apprehended.
The special adviser (security matters) to the state government explained that the cooperation of the people of the state has contributed immensely to the success recorded in fighting insecurity in the state.
Adeleye frowned over the growing activities of scavengers in the state, saying theft, attack, kidnapping and even vandalisation of government properties have been linked to the activities of the scavengers who continue to comb streets across the state in search of scrap metals.
He stressed the need for relevant agencies to come up with a policy to ban the activities of scavengers, who have been hiding under the trade to terrorize residents, steal manholes and vandalise people’s properties in the state.
The Amotekun commander said a scavenger was recently apprehended while attempting to kidnap an eight-year-old girl by putting her in a sack before he was arrested while trying to escape from the area.
He, however, condemned the activities of the scavengers who operate in the state and said: “Today again, we are parading about 36 suspects. I want to place it on record that in the last month, there were three kidnap activities that we were able to foil successfully. This means that in the last month, there has been no successful kidnapping activity in the state.
“Today, a cross-section of these criminals are a little bit different from what we normally have where we parade 20 people and 15 of them are kidnap suspects. Today, what we have more is house-breaking and stealing. We remain resolute in our determination to flush them out of our society.
“We were able to arrest these suspects due to our intelligence report and we picked about 19 of them in a particular area in the state where we monitored.
“We equally have a suspected murderer. But I must say that with the cooperation of other state security agencies, we have been able to reduce the criminal activities in the state.
“The cross-section of these 36 suspects shows that their activities have dropped drastically in the state. We will still continue to ensure that people do their businesses normally and that they are not disturbed now that the state government is resolute in guaranteeing lives and property, we are also determined to ensure that.
“However, we want to appeal to our traditional rulers, the Olus, that once they see the connection of unknown people in the forest, they should alert us immediately. I want to encourage the general public that once they see strange movement they should let the security agencies know.”
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