•PPRO Omolola Odutola
A suspected kidnapper and child trafficker, Tayo Adeleke, had confessed to the Ogun State Police Command how he and other members of his gang had been kidnapping children to sell in neighbouring Benin Republic.
Adeleke is currently in the police net, where he is being interrogated over an attempt he made with two other men, now at large, to steal children at Omu Pempe community in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State today, reports The PUNCH.
It was gathered that the suspects had stormed the Baptist church in Omu Pempe around 2 am with a motorcycle.
Their mission, it was learnt, was to steal children from the church and sell them in the Republic of Benin.
However, an operative of the So-Safe Corps had got a distress call, which she shared with the Divisional Police Officer in the area.
“When the three men were challenged about their mission in the village, they could not give any cogent explanation as they attempted to flee,” it was learnt from a source.
The Ogun State police spokesperson, Omolola Odutola, while confirming the incident to our correspondent, disclosed that Adeleke, a 25-year-old man, was apprehended with the joint effort of the police, the So-Safe Corps and other vigilante groups in the said community, even as his colleagues escaped through the bush.
According to Odutola, the suspect confessed during interrogation that, “they came to the community to kidnap children. He said they have a syndicate and they have been kidnapping children and selling them to the Republic of Benin. We have arrested one and he would help in bringing others to book.”
Odutola told our correspondent that kidnappers have observed that the command has taken charge of the highways in Ogun and they are now trying to go into communities to operate.
“Going into communities to kidnap is the new trend now. We have taken over the highways in Ogun. You will see policemen on the road now. But the kidnappers have gotten into the inner villages to start disturbing them. We will get them, we are going back to the drawing board. Criminals have no place in this state.
“So, we are calling on our traditional rulers and our community leaders in the State to establish like an internal security to barricade the entry and exit points to their communities; and give security agents the necessary information to aid the security of lives and property. Villagers can easily identify strangers in their communities, so they should help the police. Thank God this was a foiled one.
“The Ogun State Command under the Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alamutu, will not relent until criminals are flushed out of Ogun, wherever they are,” Odutola added.
