The Commissioner of Police in Ondo State, CP Wilfred Olutokunbo Afolabi, has read riot acts to criminals, especially kidnappers terrorizing different parts of the state.

Afolabi said the state police command, security agencies, and the communities have mapped out a strategy to flush criminals from the state.

He, however, listed some of the challenges of the command in carrying out their duties in terms of patrol vehicles and other logistics needed for smooth operations.

Speaking during an interactive session organized by the state Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), tagged: “The Platform,” Afolabi disclosed how series of operations were being carried out in different parts of the state and how some kidnappers were arrested while victims were rescued.

The Commissioner explained that if the command is equipped with hi-tech devices, including drones, trackers, and other devices for lawful interception, fighting crimes in the state would be done seamlessly.

According to him, the command needs assistance from the government and other stakeholders in the state in terms of the provision of patrol vans and the repair of grounded patrol vehicles for timely and effective response to distress calls.

The Commissioner said: “We can’t use orthodox method to address present security challenges. Most of our vehicles are grounded.

“The refurbishing is ongoing through the financial assistance of the people. We need Military drones that can go 50km, live tracking devices to get to the location where criminals are hiding, Lawful Intersection (LI), and fueling of vehicles, among others.

“Now, kidnapping has gone highly sophisticated, and you can confirm it from anybody.

“We can’t use the same old method, or maybe the approach of the 70s, the 80s, or even the 90s, to address these present security challenges.

“In a lot of states where they are having successes and breakthroughs, they have hi-tech machines, drones, Lawful Intersection machine (LI), life tracking, but here, we don’t have them.

“So, most times, what we rely on, whenever there is any incident of kidnapping, you deploy your men into the bush, to comb the bush. That is archai,c and you hardly can achieve much success.”

Besides, the CP noted that consistent migration into Ondo State, among other factors, contributed to the prevailing situation of criminality in the state.

He said: “There are a lot of people migrating, relocating to the Southern part of the country, and they are coming in hundreds and thousands, and there is no directive coming from anywhere that this movement should be checked.

“So, there is no doubt about it that the rate at which people are migrating, relocating into Ondo state is further worsening the prevailing security challenges we have.”

Afolabi said in the last two months of his assumption as the 45th Commissioner of Police in the state, the command has been able to flush out a lot of criminal elements, particularly in Owo and Akoko.

“So, what I had to do was to get a private tracker. And when the guy came, he was deployed along with almost six tactical teams. In the process, at least we had close to 10 confirmed suspected kidnappers that were arrested, and they are in our custody presently.”

Afolabi disclosed that the success he had achieved was a result of the synergy with other sister security agencies in the state.

He noted that following the directive of the Inspector–General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, that all Commissioners of Police should ensure that they do periodic training and retraining of their officers, the command under his watch has trained various investigative personnel, and it will continue periodically to achieve the needed results.

The commissioner, however, disclosed that efforts made so far by the command in terms of relations with the people have started yielding positive results.

He said the People Safety Partnership initiative he introduced when he assumed duty in the state a couple of months ago, through which he met with residents of violence-prone communities on intelligence gathering, is already paying off.

The Police Commissioner called on the people of the state to always contact the police whenever they suspect any strange faces and suspicious movements in their areas.