By Our Reporter

It has been confirmed that the Police is collaborating with Amotekun and local hunters in the Southwest region in a bid to flush out kidnappers, bandits, highway robbers and other criminal elements hiding in the forests.

NewsOrient reports that this new initiative became more imperative following increasing rate of kidnapping in the country, especially recent reports of frequent attacks within the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway axis.

In their reactions to the increased attacks, the Police and Amotekun Corps formally announced major operations to swoop on the criminals in the Southwest region.

The renewed offensive caught national attention recently when a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof Adigun Agbaje, and a student of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, were kidnapped close to the Sat Guru Maharaji Garden in Ibadan.

Since then, there has been reports of repeated attacks along the major highway, which our sources confirmed have reawakened all the states in the Southwest to rise up in unity for the occasion.

Sunday Abutu, the Ekiti State Police Public Relations Officer, is quoted in a report in The Punch as formally revealing how the state is rising up to the challenge.

He was quoted as saying, “For over two weeks now, policemen have been combing the forests in the state. It is ongoing and it will continue so as to ensure that criminal elements do not infiltrate the state or our forests.

“As I speak with you, our men are combing the forests and ensuring that the criminal elements are possibly arrested or chased out of the state. We have made some breakthroughs.”

According to the report, the strategy is virtually the same with Amotekun, the local security outfit.

It quoted the Amotekun Commandant in the state, Brig. Gen. Joe Komolafe (retd.), as saying:  “We go on regular patrols. At times, we go with other security agencies and sometimes we go alone. We will be proactive and not reactive.

 “We are also collaborating with the locals, hunters, traditional rulers and other vigilance groups, because they may see these people before we see them. We have friends and colleagues among them, so collaborating with them will give us early warning.

“What we are trying to do is to reduce criminality to the barest minimum. Don’t forget that there is no fence that separates forests in Ekiti State from those in the neighbouring states. We are also patrolling the forests to ensure they do not come back and see to it that others do not infiltrate through the boundaries.”

Commenting on the development, Dr Kingsley Ekun, a security analyst in Lagos, told NewsOrient that “the initiative in the Southwest, where Police now deliberately collaborate with Amotekun, traditional rulers and local hunters is highly recommended for all the regions in Nigeria serious about fighting crimes in their regions. I personally blame state governors of all the regions where such understanding or unity of purpose is not yet in place,” he said.