A member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Tunde Braimoh, has called on the Federal Government to dedicate a Special Squad of specialised law enforcement agents and intelligence personnel to combat kidnapping.
Hon. Braimoh, who is the Assembly’s chairman of Committee on Information, Strategy and Security, made this call following the kidnapping of two guards and five farmers in Epe.
Braimoh said that in the interim the police need to give their best to prevent the menace and apprehend the masterminds to win the confidence of the people.
He decried the activities of kidnappers, saying that it would slow down commitment of the state government to provide dividends of democracy for the residents.
“The latest incidence of kidnapping that occurred on the Epe farmland is callous, crude, crass and cruel. This is especially so as the victims are poor peasants struggling for survival.
“It is most disheartening that people laboring and striving for their daily bread in accordance with the commandment of God and charter of the United Nations, can be so savagely seized and kidnapped by the unscrupulous miscreants.
“To visit such act of mindlessness and wickedness on some people who believe in the dignity of labour is the very definition of man’s inhumanity to man.
“The unsavory activities of these vagabonds on the Lagos waterways and coastal areas are a grave source of worry, especially for the pragmatic governor and the House of Assembly,” Braimoh said.
He, however, reminded the hoodlums that every criminal would have a date with the law sooner than later.
According to him, no criminal has ever operated unchecked for more than five years and this set cannot be an exception.
He urged them to halt this unacceptable spate of kidnapping so as to allow the performing Governor Akinwummi Ambode retain his pace, tempo and focus for the benefit of all including kidnappers.
The latest kidnap of seven people in a farm at Igbodu Area of Epe by gunmen clad in military camouflage occurred barely two weeks after kidnappers invaded same community and abducted four people.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has announced plans to convene a National Security Summit as part of efforts to tackle the rising cases of kidnapping in the country.
Idris said the panacea to the seeming inexorable menace of kidnapping and other criminalities in the country would emerge at the upcoming national security summit in Abuja. (NAN)