Ondo Amotekun nabs 4,000 suspects in five months

Ondo State Security Network Agency, also known as “Amotekun Corps”, yesterday, said it arrested 4,000 criminal suspects within five months.

Ondo State Commander of the Corps, Adetunji Adeleye, who disclosed this to The Guardian yesterday in Akure, noted that crime rate in the state has dropped by more than 70 per cent.

He said the suspects were arrested for offences ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, rape, theft, illegal possession of firearms, child trafficking, cultism, to human relations violations, among others.

He said: “On the average, between January and May 2022, we’ve made about 4,000 arrests and through the office of the Director of Public Prosecution of Ondo State, we’ve been able to send a reasonable number to Correctional Centres and prosecution are going on, while diligent investigation are going on in others.

“Comparatively, the last five months of 2021 and the first five months of this year, we have recorded a very sharp decrease in the number of suspects arrested.
“On maintenance of law and order in the line of violators of open grazing law alone, we arrested close to 4,000 last year, but this year, we have not arrested up to 1,000.

“Also, comparatively too, virtually all forms of criminal activities are on the decline in the state. Unlike before when kidnapping was an everyday issue, it is no longer as rampant as it was within the metropolis. Even at the border towns, it is now becoming a thing of the past.”

While describing it as part of the agency’s landmark achievement,  Adeleye promised that the agency would not relent on its Operation Clean-Up efforts to eradicate crime in the state.

He added that the successes were recorded in collaboration with the men and officers of Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Army (NA).