By Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN— Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has disclosed that no fewer than 120 security personnel have been deployed to forests in the state, particularly the Ovia forest, to dislodge criminals from the area.

He made the disclosure, yesterday, in Benin City after chairing the February security council meeting.

He said the council was working to deploy more security personnel to other forests across the state to prevent criminals from migrating to places that are currently enjoying peace.

He said: “We have deployed over 120 security personnel to dislodge criminals from the Ovia axis of our forests. We got information that criminals are trying to come back, but we have redeployed more security personnel. We are working on how to completely flush them out of Edo State.”

Unregistered vehicles, covered number plates

Obaseki said the State Security Council also resolved to immediately begin the arrest and prosecution of owners of unregistered vehicles, as well as vehicles with covered number plates in the state.

On his part, Edo State Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Henry Benamaisia, said the agency had discovered that criminals move around the state in unregistered number plates, adding: “To check this, the state government has set up a task force to arrest offenders starting from today.”

He said the Federal Government, through the FRSC, had approved 5,000 number plates for Edo State, adding: “All number plates must not be covered as security agencies from this week will embark on a massive operation to arrest offenders.

“Speed is a major cause of accidents and deaths on our roads. Consequently, the governor has given us the mandate to arrest any commercial bus driver not using the speed limit device.

ALSO READ: How to effectively end kidnapping, banditry, across Nigeria — Obasanjo

“It is compulsory for all commercial vehicles in Edo Sate to install their speed limit device. If you are a commercial driver in Edo State without the speed limit device, it is now an offence and you will be arrested.”

Speaking on the successes in ridding the state of kidnappers, Commissioner of Police, Mr. Philip Ogbadu, revealed that between January and February, the command arrested several suspects, including three persons on the police wanted list since last June, while three AK-47 rifles were recovered from the suspected kidnappers.

On his part, the Edo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Iyamu, SAN, explained that after a meeting between the governor and the EFCC in Edo State, the state was developing a coordinated approach to stamp out cyber crime from the state.

“From the data presented and correlated by that of the state, it’s clear that large numbers of youths are engaged in this act. The age bracket involved in cyber crime is from 15 to less than 30 years, and prominent among them is dating scams, which is about 80 to 90 percent of the cyber crime activities in the state.

“Just as the state took the lead in tackling human trafficking five years ago, we are planning to attack cyber crime head-on and not to lose a whole generation of youths as we attack it from the root. Our youths are no longer interested in schooling. We are planning to attack the root cause.”

Vanguard News Nigeria