Amotekun, police caught napping as kidnappers resurrect in South-West

Bola Bamigbola writes that the South-West is again battling the kidnapping headache which a few years ago, succeeded in taming

If they have been living in denial before, the last week’s abduction of the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Mr. Philip Aivoji, and about nine others have made residents of states in the South-West come to the sudden realisation of the resurgence of the menace of kidnapping in the region.

The victims were said to be returning to Lagos, after attending a South-West Zonal PDP meeting, hosted by the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, in Ibadan, when they were abducted along Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Ogere, Ogun State.

Considered the safest in the country, although the South-West, over the years, has struggled to curb nefarious activities of the ransom-seeking abductors, who were using thick forests across the region as cover whenever they successfully picked up target.

But amidst all odds, the resolve of the South-West Governors Forum, under the leadership of the late Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, to tackle the deteriorating security situation in the region, which eventually birthed Amotekun Corps in 2020, sent warning signals to the perpetrators of violent crimes.

After fending off conspiracies within the South-West by the friends of the then President,  Mohammadu Buhari, and coalesced opposition to the Amotekun Corps from other parts of the country, Akeredolu, and his colleague governors, at the launch of the security apparatus on January 9, 2020 in Ibadan, did not mince words. They declared a clampdown on violent crimes, especially kidnapping for ransom in the region.

Speaking at the launch of the initiative in his capacity as the Chairman of the South-West Governors Forum, Akeredolu, said hardly was any state in the region immune from the security challenges.

“We decided that something must be done in order to curb the menace and we think that combined efforts is the only solution to it. We shall not relent until our people are secured,” Akeredolu declared at the event, which was attended in person by the Governors of Oyo and Ekiti States, Makinde and Dr. Kayode Fayemi. Ogun and Osun governors sent their deputies to represent them.

Constant assaults on the security outfit through the office of the then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, who labelled the regional security outfit illegal, were rebuffed by Akeredolu and many prominent personalities in South-West.

Ondo was the first state to launch the initiative on August 11, 2020, after the Ibadan unveiling of the security outfit. Akeredolu, who was preparing to seek another term as governor, was not unmindful of the fact that spearheading the Amotekun project could cost him his second term ticket.

He, however, said while launching the initiative in Akure, Ondo State capital, that the already overstretched conventional security agencies had manifested enough signs that they needed help, noting that Amotekun was only created to fill the gap and keep the region safe.

After the launch of the initiative in Ondo, Ekiti State followed suit with the launch of the outfit on Monday, October 19, 2020, Oyo State launched the outfit on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, while Ogun State on April 1, 2021, did its own launching of the outfit. Osun State launched Amotekun on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. Lagos State, right from the inception of the initiative did not subscribe to it, as it claimed it already had a similar security outfit.

With the regional security outfit fully operational across the region by September 2021, strings of success stories were recorded in the fight against violent crimes. There were constant patrols on major highways linking the states, and the region to the rest of the country, causing a noticeable reduction in cases of abduction.

Incidentally, at the time Akeredolu took ill and issues around his health challenge became known to the public, the soul of Amotekun almost at the same time, appeared to have been assailed with an ailment that had slowed down its progress.

The eventual passage of the ex-Ondo governor in December 2023, came at the time the menace of kidnapping rebounded across the region, putting to question the commitment of the governors to building on the successes already recorded by Amotekun against perpetrators of criminal activities in South West.

In the past few months, there has been an obvious rise in cases of abduction for ransom in South- West states, with the already overstretched conventional security outfit, resorting to giving residents security tips on how to avoid being abducted. The perpetrators, using the forest as cover were having a field day, harvesting ransom in millions from the unlucky, helpless ones caught in their traps.

Apparently getting emboldened, the perpetrators, who have been engaging in abduction largely unchecked, lately have been abducting targets in places not close to bush, that have previously been using as cover. There were instances of them picking up people from their houses and offices even during the day time unchallenged, by the security operatives.

Besides Amotekun, other security agencies in the zone, including the police, have not been able to solve the problem. The PUNCH last week reported many victims of kidnapping and their families had not been reporting the incidents to the police because the security agency had been of little or no assistance.

S’West residents groan

The incident of kidnapping which has for some time gone down in Ogun State, seems to be making a comeback with pockets of incidents recorded recently.

On Thursday, January 25, the Lagos State PDP chairman, Philip Aivoji, and about nine members of the party were kidnapped around the Ogere end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

The armed assailants reportedly intercepted the vehicles conveying the victims and forcibly took them into the bush. Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu, who confirmed the incident, said police engaged the perpetrators in a gun battle, resulting in the release of nine of the abductees. Unfortunately, Aivoji has remained in captivity since then.

Similarly, a 70-year-old piggery farmer and elder with a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Ijebu Igbo, simply identified as Pa Adeife Ifelaja was also reportedly abducted by kidnappers on December 31, 2023.

Adeife was said to have been preparing to go for the crossover service into the year 2024 when the assailants abducted him at home. It was learnt that despite paying N12m ransom to the abductors, Pa Adeife, had not been released.

Also recently, the proprietress of Excel Group of Schools, Agbado, Ogun State, Mrs. Helen Odunubi, was allegedly abducted in broad daylight. The incident occurred inside the school premises located on the Ogunsua Crescent, Osere Baba Odun Matogbun area of Agbado in Ogun State, at about 1:00 p.m.

It was learnt that an unregistered vehicle conveying four passengers drove into the school premises while its occupants went straight to the school proprietress’ office.

A son of the victim, Ayodeji Odunubi, told the police that the perpetrators dragged his mother into a waiting van and drove out of the premises before anyone could challenge them.

Similarly, though Ogun State police command, has not officially declared it an incident of abduction, a Thai expatriate, identified as Chotika Sabrit, declared missing recently has not been found.

The 29-year-old, an employee at the Dragon Inn Restaurant and Spa in the Makun area, Sagamu Ogun State, was declared missing after she allegedly left the company’s premises.

The PUNCH also reported that on December 4, 2023, no fewer than six suspected hoodlums attacked a poultry farm and kidnapped three workers in Atoyo town in the Itele area of Ogun State.

In Ondo State, on January 18, the abduction of a couple was reported along the Akure-Ikere expressway. The vehicle conveying them was reportedly flagged down at the bad portion of the road by the hoodlums, who dragged them into the bush around Iju, a community in the Akure North Local Government Area of the state.

In Osun State, even though cases of abduction were largely unreported, on a few occasions that reports were made, victims were not released until huge amounts of money had been collected as ransom.

On Friday, November 17, 2023, some unknown gunmen abducted a nurse, identified as Mrs S. Ogunyinka, while returning from a farm along Iwo/Ileogbo Road in Osun State.

During the attack on the nurse, her husband was reportedly shot by the abductors, before the wife was taken to an unknown destination.

Ogunyinka, a staff nurse of the Primary Healthcare Department, Ola-Oluwa LG, Bode-Osi, Osun State, was not released until ransom running to millions was paid.

In Ekiti and Oyo states, the security situation was not in any way better. Last Saturday, the Chairman of Oyo State Tipper, Lorry, and Quarry Park Management System, Alhaji Akeem Akintola, popularly known as KUSO, was abducted in his residence at Ajiboye area, Omi Apata, Ibadan, the state capital.

Similarly, on Saturday, January 20, two persons were reportedly abducted in Otu town by unknown gunmen. The two victims were identified as Dayo Olayanju and Mrs Obasola, whose husband, Kehinde, was said to have escaped with gunshot wounds.

While states operating Amotekun Corps are finding it hard to keep at bay the marauding kidnappers, Lagos State refrained from joining the initiative citing the existence of a similar security outfit in its security apparatus, have been experiencing cases of abduction almost daily.

The Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone XI Command, Osogbo, Mr. Patrick Edung, during an interview with The PUNCH, dismissed claims that cases of abduction were on the increase in Oyo and Osun States, which fall under his command.

Speaking through the Public Relations Officer of the Zone, Benjamin Ayeni, the AIG said Commissioners of Police under his Command, as well as, men and officers at the Zonal headquarters, had been arranged into tactical teams and given a mandate to rid the command of violent crimes.

In Lagos State, areas such as Okota and Gbagada have become kidnapping hotspots.

A resident of Ago, who spoke to The PUNCH last week, said, “Cases of kidnappings, especially in this Ago Palace area, are not new. It became a common trend last year, whereby people rush to the police to report. The police step in and rescue some, while some end up paying a ransom and get freed before the police step in.

“But towards the end of last year, it was noticed that cases of kidnappings increased but some of them were not reported to the police. I know of three incidents in which the captors warned them not to involve the police.”

In a recent interview with The PUNCH, the chairman of the Forum of Amotekun Corps Commanders, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, while responding to questions on how the Corps was tackling rising cases of violent crimes in the region said, “They (hoodlums) have actually been coming to the South-West. In recent times we have arrested over 150 of them in Ondo. Only two weeks ago we paraded 26 kidnapped suspects. So you can see there is an upsurge of these suspected kidnappers and many of them are coming from the northern part of the country, even though they have local collaborators, but we are getting them.”

Additional reports by Uthman Salami and Peter Dada