Men of the Ondo State Security Network, otherwise known as Amotekun Corps, have assured residents of the state that the prevailing security situation in the Federal Capital Territory will not be allowed to surface in any part of the state.
The Commander of Amotekun in the state, Adetunji Adeleye, revealed that the new strategy of kidnappers entering houses to abduct victims will be prevented from happening in the state with the deployment of operatives across the 18 local councils of the state.
Adeleye, who stated this while parading no fewer than 19 suspected kidnappers and 17 other criminals at the headquarters of the corps in Akure, the state capital, urged the people to be vigilant about strange faces within their neighbourhoods.
According to him, no fewer than 19 suspected kidnappers have been arrested in the state, with 17 nabbed in the northern senatorial district of the state.
He said: “Today again, we are parading about 36 suspects. I want to place it on record that in the last month, there were three kidnapped activities that we were able to foil successfully. Which means that in the last month, there have been no successful kidnapping activities in the state.
“A cross-section of these criminals is a little bit different from what we normally have, where we parade 20 people and 15 of them are kidnapping suspects. Today, we have more housebreaking and stealing, and we remain resolute in our determination to flush them out of our society.
“Across the board, we were able to foil the connection of some people that are suspected to be kidnappers and robbers that we were able to find due to our intelligence report, and we picked about 17 of them in a particular area in the state where we monitored.
“We equally have a suspected murderer; we have about eight cases of housebreaking and shopbreaking. But I must say that with the cooperation of other state security agencies, we have been able to reduce 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 movements, they should let the security agencies know.
“The cross section of the 19 suspected kidnappers was picked from the Northern senatorial district of the state, and you will notice that you always find members of the Amotekun Corps in every junction and every major street. This is to prevent such actions of kidnappers entering houses to pick people, and that’s why we are calling on the general public to beware of strangers.
On the activities of scavengers in the state, Adeleye said, “They are already a problem because a couple a day ago, we paraded one man that actually kidnapped an eight-year-old girl, put in a sack bag, and this is what has been happening all over the state.
“So we are working with the relevant government agencies to come up with a policy to ban the further activities of these scavengers within the state.”