By Ayodele Oni
A week hardly passes now that kidnappers will not unleash terror on the people of Ondo State. The latest is the abduction of a farm estate owner, Olanrewaju Oyeleye, 50, and his farm manager.
They were reportedly abducted on Friday morning at the farmland in Oba-Ile, along Akure Airport Road, Ondo State.
Apart from Akure and Owo axis of the State, Akoko area has also become hotspot for the kidnappers who operate day and night, unhindered despite presence of policemen and Amotekun guards.
The State Police Command seems helpless as according to the Commissioner of Police, Wilfred Afolabi, the Command lacks necessary equipment to confront criminals upfront.
According to sources close to the victims, the kidnappers contacted Oyeleye’s family on Saturday, demanding a ransom of N100 million for their release.
Oyeleye, who had lived abroad for several years, returned to Akure four years ago to invest in mechanized farming.
Confirming the incident, the Commander of the Ondo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun, Adetunji Adeleye, stated that security operatives have been working tirelessly to track the abductors and rescue the victims.
“The kidnapping happened early Thursday morning, and we have been actively pursuing leads to ensure their safe return.”
The Police Commissioner listed some of the challenges of the Command in carrying out its duties in terms of patrol vehicles and other logistics needed for smooth operations.
According to him, if the Command is equipped with hi-tech devices including drone, trackers and other devices for lawful interception, fighting crimes in the State would be done seamlessly.
Afolabi revealed that the Command needs assistance from Government and other stakeholders in the State in terms of provision of patrol vans and repair of grounded patrol vehicles for timely and effective response to distress calls.
“We can’t use orthodox method to address present security challenges. Most of our vehicles are grounded. The refurbishing are ongoing through the financial assistance from the people.
“We need Military drone that can go 50km, live tracking devices to get the location where criminals are hiding, Lawful Intersection (LI), fueling of vehicles among others.
“Now, kidnapping has gone highly sophisticated and you can confirm it from anybody. We can’t use the same old method, or maybe the approach of the 70s or the 80s or even the 90s to address this present security challenges.
“In a lot of States where they are having successes and breakthroughs, they have hi-tech machines, drones, Lawful Intersection machine (LI), life tracking, but here, we don’t have them.
“So, most times, what we rely on, whenever there is any incident of kidnapping, you deploy your men into the bush, to comb the bush. That is archaic and you hardly can achieve much success.”
Besides, the CP noted that consistent migration into Ondo State among other factors contribute to the prevailing situation of criminality in the State.
“There are lot of people migrating, relocating to the Southern part of the country and they are coming in hundreds and thousands, and there is no directive coming from anywhere that this movement should be checked.
“So, there is no doubt about it that the rate at which people are migrating, relocating into Ondo state is further worsening the prevailing security challenges we have.
Afolabi however disclosed that in the last two months of his assumption as the 45th Commissioner of Police in the state, the Command has been able to flush out a lot of criminal elements, particularly in Owo and Akoko.
“So, what I had to do was to get a private tracker. And when the guy came, he was deployed along with almost six tactical teams.
“In the process, at least we had close to 10 confirmed suspected kidnappers that were arrested and they are in our custody presently.”
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