Kidnapping: Govt to provide security for traditional rulers •My abductors’ weapons not common —Oniba

Following the kidnap of the Oniba of Ibaland, Oba Goriola Oseni and his release last Saturday by his abductors, Lagos State government said it had concluded arrangements to provide security for traditional rulers and their palaces in the state. The kidnappers, who were nine in number, released him after a ransom of N15.1 million was paid to them.

Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami, made this known when he paid a visit on the Oba on Monday, saying the state government would now extend security to the palaces across the state.

Folami stated that government took the step in order to avoid a repeat of what happened to the Iba monarch as the security of its traditional rulers was of great important.

The commissioner, while recalling that government had provided lots of equipment for the police for effective performance, assured that the police were on top of their business to police and secure the state.

Expressing appreciation to God that the monarch was released unhurt; the commissioner said government was very much concerned all through the period the monarch was kidnapped and was working with the police to ensure his timely release.

He said government was doing much to open up the rural areas by embarking on the construction of 114 rural roads across the councils in the state.

The Oniba of Ibaland, Oseni, in his response, appealed to the government to provide security at the grassroots, saying that the police post in the community for long had not been upgraded.

The monarch said he had never seen such sophisticated weapons used by the kidnappers in abducting him with any police officer, just as he lamented that many of the kidnappers were boys of between 18 and 19 years old apart from the few adult among them.

According to him, when he advised them that they ought to be in school rather than engage in such act, they told him that they did not have such money for school and that what they were interested in was how to make money through bunkering and kidnapping.