The Police Command in Ekiti State says it is intensifying holistic overhauling of personnel and operational strategies to curb increasing cases of kidnapping.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Babatunde Mobayo, made the assertion in a statement by the Command Public Relations Officer, Mr Sunday Abutu, on Saturday in Ado Ekiti
According to him, the Swift Response Squad unit of the command has been decentralised to increase patrols across the 16 local government areas of the state.
He said the strategies put in place had started yielding results due to proactive actions taken by the Police formation in Ekiti.
He also expressed the command’s readiness to partner with other security agencies and stakeholders to achieve the desired results.
“We knew that kidnapping was a major challenge to our command in 2020, and if you observe very well, you will realise that the cases are reducing even before Christmas and New Year festivities.
“The last issue we experienced in Dec. 31 was a self- kidnap and the person behind this and his syndicates who were perpetrators of this to extort a sum of N250, 000 from a woman had been arrested.
“Due to a change of operational strategies, the operation SRS is now operating in all the councils and our patrol teams are all over the roads monitoring situations.
“We are determined to fight kidnapping in Ekiti and we are ready to work with Vigillante groups, Amotekun corps, Agbekoya, and local hunters to achieve this task,” he said.
He said the command was doing its best to guide against mishandling of firearms by police personnel and that of other security agencies in the state.
“The police as a superintending body is monitoring all other paramilitary bodies in Ekiti.
“To the best of our knowledge, the Ekiti Amotekun corps has been professional in their duties.
“They are also cooperating with us to fight and reduce crime in Ekiti,” he added.
Ekiti in the recent times witnessed several high profile kidnappings involving a serving Commissioner, Mr Folorunso Oyebode, a retired U.S. army officer, Major Jide Ijadare, a Director in the Local Government Service Commission, Mr David Jejelowo, and scores of others. (NAN)
