Police arrest Delta anti-kidnap chief

Police authorities have arrested the Delta State Head of the anti-kidnapping squad, Mr Dickson Adeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan said Adeyemi was apprehended for alleged complicity in the increasing kidnap cases in the state.

Our correspondent learnt that the officer had been flown to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for interrogation.

The squad is a special outfit set up by the security agencies with the support of the state government to tackle the abductions in the oil-rich state.

Uduaghan alleged in Warri on Wednesday that Adeyemi had been fingered as one of the backers of some of the kidnap cases in the state.

He said, “In our efforts to rid the state of the menace, we have arrested the anti-kidnap squad head with a number of his boys on suspicion that he has been responsible for some of the abduction cases in the state of recent.

“Most of the boys who have been arrested had one confession, and that was that they had a chairman (Adeyemi). And when we investigated, we found out that the chairman was the same man that was recruited to stop the menace in the state.”

It was learnt that at least 200 persons were being held by the army, State Security Service and Police over abduction cases in the state.

A younger brother of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, a commissioner’s wife, two ex-lawmakers, doctors, a journalist and others were abducted from various locations in the state in the last two weeks.

Uduaghan added that  intelligence report had revealed that there were “insiders” collaboration with most of the kidnappers.

The governor said, “We have discovered that insiders have been variously involved in these cases, including drivers, cooks and even relations of these victims.

“A pastor who recruited other pastors to carry out the heinous crime were also apprehended. That tells you how deep this thing has eaten in some people.”

Uduaghan, who also held meetings with the leadership of the Nigeria Bar Association, Warri, community leaders and other stakeholders at the Government House Annex in Warri, advised relations of victims not to rush to pay ransoms, adding that it would encourage the kidnappers.

He dismissed the belief that the kidnappers were into crime because they had no other means of livelihood.

He added, “Kidnappers are criminals. There is no excuse for their crime. They are not petty thieves, so they couldn’t have been driven by hunger and unemployment.

“Let me add that we might inconvenience some residents in a bid to end this scourge. They should please bear with us.”