The Edo State Police Command has raised the alarm over the alleged involvement of more local residents in cases of kidnapping in the state.
The State Commissioner of Police, Funsho Adegboye, raised the alarm at a press conference on Tuesday in Benin City.
Adegboye, who briefed on the command’s activities to combat crime in the state, added that cases of kidnapping by herdsmen have somewhat reduced.
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He said, more locals are now being involved and arrested for kidnapping.
According to him, from our recent experiences, from the victims we have liberated and debriefed, we have discovered that most of the kidnappers now are not those we usually call herdsmen, the locals are getting seriously involved in kidnapping.
“Before, if you ask the victims of kidnapping, they will say ‘herdsmen’. The involvement of the so-called herdsmen is now very minimal.
“Somebody was arrested in Edo north when he was brought here, their group leader and others came here and vouched for him. But, fortunately, an investigation confirmed 100 percent that he kidnapped a woman and collected money. The people were ashamed for vouching for him.
“Also, recently, in Benin City, a 23-year-old man kidnapped a five-year-old girl, kept her in his room for several days, and collected N250,000 ransom from the parents, while the poor girl was in his room.
“We are also carrying out investigations to ascertain if the minor was sexually molested by the man.
“We deployed all our technical arsenal and we were able to get him arrested. He confessed to the heinous crime and he has been charged in court. It was a pathetic situation,” he added.
He, however, explained that the operatives of the Command have been moving around to sensitize members of the public, especially the leaders, the youth leaders on the need to be more vigilant.
The commissioner, who noted that everybody is a suspect, appealed to members of the public to always be vigilant, saying that you can only believe in yourself and not your next-door neighbours.
