Oyo recorded low armed robbery cases in 2020, say police

Raise the alarm over invasion of foreign herdsmen

The Oyo State Police Command has raised the alarm over infiltration of foreign killer herdsmen into the state. However, the police have said that crime rate has reduced drastically in the state.

A source at the command headquarters in Ibadan told newsmen that a letter from the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Department of Operations, State Headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan, Oyo State, addressed to Governor Seyi Makinde, showed that Oyo State actually recorded lower armed robbery cases in 2020, compared to what it was in 2019.

According to the statistics forwarded to the governor from the office of the Commissioner of Police, armed robbery cases recorded in Oyo State from 2019 to 2020 were very low.

In a letter signed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police on behalf of the Police Commissioner, the statistics in 2019 indicated a total number of 182 robberies, while 123 were recorded in 2020.

The report stated: “Armed robbery appeared to be on a good decline with about 45/50% decline.” The police said the statistics showed that the governor’s efforts to secure Oyo were working.

The report further showed that the new form of criminality in the state is banditry, mainly kidnapping by invading herdsmen. Men of the state security outfit, ‘Operation Burst,’ last week, arrested some armed herdsmen numbering 47, suspected of attempting a reprisal in the Oke-Ogun/Ibarapa area.

Part of the moves by Governor Makinde to tackle herders’ invasion was the operation by Amotekun corps launched penultimate Saturday, into the thick forests of Ibarapa East, Ibarapa Central and Ibarapa North, as well as Iwajowa Local Government Areas against the bandits.

It was in collaboration with some native Fulanis. Some bandits were killed while others were handed over to the police. The governor had, in December, raised the alarm about foreign criminals sneaking into Oyo State through Saki, while warning of their potential danger.

Just yesterday, the chairman, South-Western Security Network codenamed ‘Amotekun’ in Oyo State, Col. Kunle Togun, disclosed that most commercial motorcyclists in the state are spies for kidnappers and bandits.

He said the foreigners who were ferried inside trailers into Oyo State, among other states, during the COVID-19 lockdown could not speak any Nigerian language, but French whenever accosted by his men.

Togun hinted that the warning from the state governor to traditional chiefs to stop allocating lands to herdsmen with no papers showing Nigerian nationality would go a long way to stem the spate of killings and kidnappings in Yoruba land.