by Willy Okonji,
The Ondo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun Corps, has arrested 53 suspects linked to kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, burglary, stealing and cultism across the state.
Among those apprehended are 21 undocumented foreign nationals discovered living in two apartments in Owo, the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area.
State Commander of the corps, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, disclosed on Monday that the foreigners were arrested following intelligence supplied by members of the Fulani community. He said the suspects claimed to have entered Nigeria from neighbouring West African countries to take up menial jobs and phone repair work, but could not produce documents authorising their stay in the country.
“I want to call the attention of the general public to the embarrassing way that foreigners traverse the state’s forests and cities under different guises,” Adeleye said. “Again today, we have 21 of them that rented only two apartments in Owo under the guise of coming in from neighbouring West African countries to do menial jobs and repairs of phones, being coordinated and assisted by indigenes.”
He added that the suspects had no ECOWAS travel papers to justify their stay, warning that foreigners who are abandoned by their sponsors often drift into criminal activity. “Apart from being likely to be suspected illegal immigrants, most times when their sponsors abandon them, they become ready tools as criminals and accomplices,” he said.
Adeleye further revealed that four suspects were arrested over an alleged self-kidnapping racket, in which false alarms were raised on social media to extort money from unsuspecting victims. “We have four people here today that give self-kidnapping and raise false alarms using social media. We moved in and were able to arrest the first two,” he said.
In a separate operation, seven suspected kidnappers were arrested through collaborative efforts with the Fulani community. A military uniform was recovered from one of the suspects, while two abducted boys were rescued in the process.
One of the rescued victims had sustained machete wounds during the ordeal but was recovered alive and is currently receiving treatment. “With the cooperation we received from the Fulani community, we were able to jointly carry out an operation where a military uniform was recovered from one of the kidnappers, and we successfully retrieved the two kidnapped boys, though wounded,” Adeleye said. “In an attempt to kill one of them, they macheted his head, his body and every part of him. We brought him back alive and he is now stable.”
