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The Ondo State Police Commissioner, Wilfred Afolabi, says the acquisition of hitec security equipment such as drones and trackers will change the face of the fight against kidnapping in the state.
Afolabi said with the availability technological facilities, the police would have the edge over kidnappers and other violent criminals who have become sophisticated in recent times.
The police commissioner spoke at an interactive session with the Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The police boss attempted to explain efforts at steming the rising incidences of kidnappings and other criminalities in the state.
He said although efforts had been made by the command to curtail the excesses of the criminals through various arrest, and rescue of their victims, there still remains a gap in the availability of requisite technologies.
He 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.
The Commissioner explained that if the command is equipped with hi-tec devices including drone, trackers and other devices for lawful interception, fighting crimes in the state would be done seamlessly.
According to him, the command needs assistance from government and other stakeholders in the state in terms of provision of patrol vans and repair of grounded patrol vehicles for timely and effective response to distress calls.
“We can’t use orthodox method to address present security challenges. Most of our vehicles are grounded. The refurbishing are ongoing through the financial assistance of the people,” he said.
“We need Military drone that can go 50km, live tracking devices to get the location where criminals are hiding, Lawful Intersection (LI), 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 or the 80s or even the 90s to address this 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 archaic and you hardly can achieve much success.”On the problem of migration, Mr Afolabi 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 however said he was using a private tracker in backing up efforts by men of his command in the recent achievements recorded within the short time he had been commissioner of police in Ondo State.
“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,” the Commissioner said.
He noted that the synergy between the police and other security agencies had further enhanced outcomes of efforts to restrain the criminals.
The Police Commissioner also urged the people of the state to always contact the police whenever they suspected any strange faces and suspicious movements in their areas.