Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin and Ben Dunno, Warri
Edo State Commissioner of Police, Danmallam Muhammed, has moved into the Ovia forest with a team of joint security comprising army, police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps to fish out the alleged Fulani herdsmen said to be using the forest as their kidnapping abode.
As at yesterday evening, the herdsmen/kidnappers were still holding on to three Bayelsa women who they allegedly kidnapped on Sunday afternoon on their way from Lagos to Bayelsa State.
The Edo police boss told journalists before moving into the Ovia forest that he is personally leading the team to ensure those perpetuating the evil act in the forest are fished out.
He said he had earlier despatched an advance team made up Mobile police and men of the anti-kidnapping unit of the command, who he said have been combing the area and were making progress.
“My team is joining them to experiment a new security strategy we have just adopted since we have discovered that the kidnappers are using guerrilla type of operation.
“We will also beam our searchlight on the entire communities within the area to find out if there are any collaborators in the system which is one of the reasons I want to be there personally,” he said.
Meanwhile, the announcement of re-deployment of Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Ovwian-Aladja, CSP Anietie Eyoh, to Asaba division by the Delta State Police Command, has continued to generate mixed reactions from various stakeholders in the community.
In his reaction, the Spokesman of the Udu Kingdom, Happy Saiki, said the announcement came as a shock considering the fact the people are looking up to him to assist in tackling the menace of cultism that had become very rampant in the community.
“We are still very shock over the news of his redeployment from our community. This is a man, who had barely stayed two weeks in this area as DPO and all the cultists who had been terrorising us started moving out. We want to plead with the Delta Commissioner of Police, Adeyinka Adeleke, to rescind his decision on this transfer directive,”Saiki said.
