By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.
Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo of Kogi State has approved the immediate employment of thousands of local hunters to compliment the regular Forces in the fight against criminal activities in the state.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr Kingsley Femi Fanwo who disclosed this in a statement at the weekend in Lokoja said the joint forces would be deployed across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state.
He said that the effort is with the immediate task of strengthening the prevailing strategy of going after the criminals and taking the fight to their camps and hideouts, which is already yielding positive results.
Fanwo expressed the believe that the torrent of attacks on insurgents, bandits and kidnappers in the North East had dislodged them and many of them now try to find their feet in the North Central.
He however foreclosed that Kogi State Government was deploying an iron-cast approach to safeguarding the state from the fangs of criminals with a clear statement that Kogi would be ruthless against criminals
The Commissioner held that the State Government under the leadership of Governor Ododo had risen to the challenge of defeating the torrent of criminality waged against the state and its people in the last one month.
“Also, the Joint Forces of the Army, Police, DSS, NSCDC, Metropolitan Response Squad and Hunters Group are currently carrying out simultaneous operations in Lokoja as well as across the three Senatorial Districts, including our border communities”, he said.
The Commissioner noted that the efforts of the state government in this direction had continued to pay off with the rescue of 21 out of the 24 CUSTECH students kidnapped on May 9.
“This morning, we also received the heart-warming report of the rescue of the Yagba-West woman that was kidnapped and another woman from Yagba East Local Government Areas.
“We are still searching frantically for the three remaining students yet to be rescued as every Kogite’s life is important to the government.
“We have also secured the release of scores of kidnapped victims who are not even Kogites but who were kidnapped in their various states and taken to the forests around Kogi”, the Commissioner explained.
According to him, Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo has silently declared war on criminals in the state and deploying resources and forces to ensure the enemies of our people are defeated.
He said that the Governor had also expressed profound gratitude to the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for his support and encouragement to make Kogi a crime free state.
“We want to assure our people that the Government is working hard to protect everyone and that the criminals are learning in a hard way that Kogi won’t be a ground for their criminal trade. The criminals are rattled and they won’t escape justice.
“As the Government puts everything into winning this war against criminality, we urge the citizens to also play their part by volunteering intelligence to security agencies for the effective security of our dear State”, Fanwo urged. (Ends)