By Akintunde Jacobs, Akure
In its efforts to ensure the safety of lives and properties of residents including the indigenes of the state, the Ondo State Security Network Agency codenamed Amotekun Corps, has said it has commenced a 24hours patrol in the Northern Senatorial District of the state and other parts of the state.
Amotekun Corps Commander, Adetunji Adeleye, who said this on Wednesday in Akure while parading some suspects numbering 45, said that the Ondo highways are now safe from the hands of criminals.
Adeleye said “As we speak now, we have put measures in place in order to ensure that our roads are safe from the hands of 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. Again, the re-enforcement ban on the use of okada in the night is also one of the major things responsible for the downward trend of criminals activities in the state generally.
“Today is another major harvest of criminals operating within the Ondo State, a couple of weeks ago, we deployed additional hands to all the 18 Local Government Areas of the state to assist in beefing up the security architecture of Ondo State and it has actually yielded a lot of results.
“Within the last two weeks, we have been able to curtail the excesses of the criminals raging 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.
“We have a case of one Okoyie Chukwuma, who specialises in burgling into cocoa stores, we also have one Philip Jacob who specialises in vandalising vehicles parked in mechanical workshop overnight. In Ore, there was a kidnapped of a family and we moved there immediately and we were able to arrested the kidnappers and released the victims.
“We also have those that are regular in house breaking, in the midnight, they have the ways of opening doors and silently entering to molest innocent people and disposes them of their valuables.
“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. We 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 the all 18 Local Government Areas of the state.”