Ondo Amotekun arrests 45 robbery, other suspects

A 25-year-old suspected kidnapper, Usman Muhammadu, was arrested by men of the Ondo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun, on Wednesday, confessed to killing three people abducted by his gang after collecting ransom.

Usman, who disclosed this during his parade alongside some other 45 suspected criminals by the state Amotekun officials in Akure, explained that he had collected over N500,000 from relations of victims abducted by his gang as ransom.

He, however, declined to give reasons for killing the victims despite collecting ransom from the family of the victims but it might not be unconnected with the delay in the payment of ransom demanded form their family members.

Speaking on how the gang operates, Usman said “we have informants who we pay to give us information.

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“After we have the information, we swing into action, kidnap the victim, march them into the forest and demand for ransom from their family members.

The Amotekun officials also paraded one Yaro Yaya, who was said to be the informant of the gang.

While confessing, Yaya said that “my own job is to pass information over to the members. I don’t know what they do with the victims, how much they collect as ransom, they just settle me out of the ransom collected. I don’t ask questions, I collect whatever is given to me by the leader of the group”

The State Commander of Amotekun, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, said that the 46 suspected criminals were arrested within the last two weeks.

Adeleye said: “Within the last two weeks, we have been able to curtail the excesses of the criminals ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery, rape among others. We have 45 criminals that we have concluded their investigations and they are ready to go for prosecution.

“In Ore, there was a kidnapped of a family and we moved there immediately and we were able to arrest the kidnappers and released the victims.

“We also some people that specialise in using vehicles to steal goats across the state and some of the goats have been recovered from them and we also have a gang of fraudsters that use spiritual means to defraud some people in the society.

“We have a case of some kidnappers that they will fake that you have hit their bikes, and when you come out to sympathise with them, they will just enter your vehicle and drive the victims away. We have eight suspected kidnappers from the Central and Southern Senatorial Districts of Ondo State.

“I must let you know that factually all these operations were done in collaboration with other sister security agencies in the state.

“The trend of crimes in Ondo State is now seriously coming down, as far as we are concerned, we are impressed about the safety of lives and properties in the state.

“If you look at the Akure metropolis, all major junctions are manned by the security operatives and we are trying more to patrol within all 18 local government areas of the state.

“As we speak now, we have put measures in place in order to ensure that our roads are safe from criminals, our patrol vehicles are moving round for 24 hours. We want to reassure the good people of Ondo State to go about their normal duties

Adeleye said that “the reinforcement ban on the use of okada in the night is also one of the major things responsible for the downward trend of criminal activities in the state generally.”

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Ondo Amotekun arrests 45 robbery, other suspects