Task force kills suspected kidnapper in gun duel in Ekiti State, rescues victims

S’West retired heads of service, perm secs drum support for govs on Amotekun

A suspected kidnapper was yesterday killed by combined force of security agencies in Ekiti State during a shoot-out in a sprawling forest between Ekiti and Kwara states’ border.

Their victims, whose identities are not yet known at press time, were said to have been rescued alive by the security forces. A source told newsmen in Ado-Ekiti that the suspected abductor, was killed by combined force of soldiers, police and local security task force belonging to Fulani extraction called Yan Banga, which was set up by a Sarkin Fulani in Ekiti, Alhaji Adamu Abashe, inside a forest at Eruku in Kwara State.

The security forces were said to have laid ambush for the kidnapping gang at the point of payment of N2.1 million ransom for an abducted Fulani man and chased them after collecting the money until they succeeded in shooting one of the suspects dead.

Also, a source at Itapaji in Ikole Local Council of the state where series of kidnappings had taken place recently, said the suspect’s body had been handed over to the police.

Secretary of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria, Ekiti Chapter, Ibrahim Toyin Mumini, advised that an expanded joint task force remains the best way to tackle insecurity in Ekiti.

The police, led by the Police Public Relations Officer, Sunday Abutu, who paraded the kidnapper’s dead body at the police headquarters in Ado-Ekiti, said it was in the process of picking up the ransom of about N2 million that the security operatives, which comprised the local hunters, the vigilantes, the army and the police, gave them a hot chase up to Eruku in Kwara State where one of the kidnappers was gunned down during a gun duel.

IN another development, South-West Association of Retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries (SWARHOSPS) has declared unflinching support for the six South-West governors on their collective move to tackle insecurity in the region.

The SWARHOSPS President, Dr. Olusola Okebukola, who stated this, yesterday, at the fifth quarterly general meeting of the association in Akure, expressed despair over the insecurity challenges in the country.

He lamented that the recurring spates of insecurity on the nation were affecting all spheres of human endeavours, thereby causing untold hardship on all Nigerians. Okebukola, therefore, urged the governors to constantly deploy strategies that would significantly enhance the security of life and property.