Ondo Amotekun Commander hails declaration of bandits as terrorists

The Chairman of the Western Nigerian Security Network and the Ondo state Commander of Amotekun, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, has commended the declaration of bandits as terrorists, describing it as a welcome development.

Adeleye who stated this in Akure, Ondo State capital, said though the Federal Government exercised enough patience before declaring bandits as terrorists, but said it was better late than never.

He, however, assured that the Amotekun in conjunction with other security agencies will work towards ensuring that terrorist groups are defeated in the country.

Adeleye said men of the Amotekun in Ondo State have been able to keep the state safe by the adequate implementation of the Anti-Grazing law signed by the Akeredolu-led administration.

He said “It’s not really about how many people we have arrested. We assured the good people of Ondo state of safe yuletide festivities and to the glory of God, we were able to ensure that throughout those periods, criminal activities by hoodlums were kept at bay.

“In one or two instances we had security bridges, they were all arrested and brought to book I will give God Almighty all the thanks because it cannot be us, it’s God.

“In the same vein, I would also like to commend the Akeredolu-led administration for giving us an enabling environment and the needed supports at all times to actually secure the people of Ondo State, its environs and their property.

“The entire border patrol which was part of Phase 7 of our “Operation Clean-Up is being sustained by the government of Ondo state to ensure that the border and the state are highly protected from bandits and we appreciate the state government for such gesture”

He disclosed that the enforcement of the ban on the use of unregistered vehicles, tinted glass vehicles without permits and the abuse on the restriction of okada operations at night’s, reduced criminal activities by 80 per cent in Ondo state.

“In every our control points, we have members of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and the police joining Amotekun to enforce these restrictions in compliance to law and order.

“Initially, the people were apprehensive and not too happy about the development, until they realized that it was for their good.

“Again, within the first 15 days of manning all major junctions and entry points leading into the state capital and all local government headquarters, we were able to arrest five hundred and 50 vehicles as well as over 600 suspects.

“After thorough investigations and screenings, we brought about 45 of them to book through court rulings.

“We discovered, that criminal activities in the main towns went down completely and travellers started having problems and that was why we embarked on border patrols and you will recall that within forty-eight hours of commencement of the border patrol, we were confronted by armed robbers and kidnappers and that singular operation, we rescued about 17 victims in two separate operations which we brought to Akure and also released over 60 vehicles that were captured.

In another successful feat, the Corps rescued a Lagos/ Kaduna bound truck loaded with goods worth over 50 million naira that was hijacked and driven to the bush along.

According to him, the driver and the occupants were driven inside the kidnappers’ den.

“Our men moved in and we were able to rescue all the victims with minimal wounds from the kidnappers and we recovered all the goods.

“The only things that were lost were minor personal effects and some little cash from the victims and at that point, we united them with their families”

He commended the people of the state for their useful and timely information which have continued to assist the Corps in bursting crimes.

“I want to give kudos to the good people of the state for their supports, especially in terms of quality and timely information upon which we respond in mere zero minutes to all their distress calls.

“We thank them and we seek their cooperation, we have been telling them that security is not the business of the police, the army, the Civil Defence and Amotekun alone, it’s everybody’s business and it starts from noticing your immediate environment.

“Criminals don’t live in heaven, they live among us, kindly expose them. We have our distress line numbers which remains 08079999989 and all information so far are on this line are being treated with the strictest confidence such that the source of our information can never be disclosed.

“So, to the good people of Ondo State, we want to reassure them of our commitment to zero-tolerance to crime in the state and the South West in general.”

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