By Austin Ogwuda
Warri —  Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State has set up a military task force to curb the activities of kidnappers in the state, as 80 persons await trial for alleged kidnapping.

Inaugurating the task force, weekend,  in Edjeba, near Warri, Uduaghan said setting up the task force became imperative, considering the recent abduction of 15 schoolchildren by criminals in Aba, Abia State.

He condemned the incident and urged Nigerians to rise up against kidnapping with proactive actions geared towards its prevention and eradication.

Uduaghan, who noted that capital punishment might not be a panacea to the kidnap scourge, stressed that death sentence had never served as a deterrent for any crime in the country.

He said that although Delta had recorded some kidnap cases, his administration would not like to experience a case akin to the Aba incident.

Uduaghan noted that the people were now developing apathy to public transportation in the state because of the looming threat of kidnappers.

“The way Nigeria is, once something happens elsewhere, people tend to copy it in other places. We must take steps to prevent the recurrence of the Aba incident anywhere in the country”, he said.

The Governor charged the task force to hunt down known and suspected kidnappers in the state so as to forestall the likelihood of cases similar to the Aba saga in the state.

Uduaghan stressed that the state had zero-tolerance for kidnapping in the past, adding, however, that some criminals had infiltrated the state.

“Right now, it appears that some persons, who were into kidnapping in other states, have sneaked into our state and we are determined to fish them out”, he said.

The governor warned  hoodlums to shelve their plans to use Delta as a platform to carry out their nefarious activities or be ready to face the full wrath of the law.

Speaking on behalf of the Joint Military Taskforce, Mr. Yakubu Alkali, the Commissioner of Police, commended Uduaghan for taking such a bold step to stem the menace of kidnapping

“We want to assure you that this synergy has always been here, will continue to be here and we will give you the desired results”, he said.