By SEGUN GIWA

The Commissioner of Police (CP) in Ondo State, Wilfred Afolabi, has warned kidnappers and other criminal elements to steer clear of the state.

Afolabi gave the warning on Sunday in Akure during an interactive session organised by the state Correspondents? Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), tagged: ?The Platform?.

He said series of operations had been carried out in different parts of the state, while some kidnappers were arrested and victims rescued since he assumed office.

The CP said that efforts made so far by the command, in terms of relationship with the people, had started to yield positive results.

According to him, the People Safety Partnership initiative I introduced when I assumed duty in the state a couple of months ago, is already paying off.

He explained the initiative was especially effective with residents of violence-prone communities on intelligence gathering.

The CP, therefore, called on the residents to immediately contact the police whenever they suspected any strange faces and suspicious movements in their areas.

He, however, said the command needed assistance from government and other stakeholders in the state, in terms of provision of patrol vans and repair of grounded patrol vehicles.

According to Afolabi, the provision of more vehicles will ensure the timely and effective response to distress calls.

?We can?t use orthodox methods to address present security challenges. Most of our vehicles are grounded. The refurbishing are ongoing through the financial assistance of the people.

?We need Military drones 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 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, LI machines, live tracking, but here, we don?t have them.

?So, most times, whenever there is any incident of kidnapping, you deploy your men to comb the bushes. That is archaic and you hardly can achieve much success,? he said.

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

The CP also said that the command, under his watch had trained various investigative personnel periodically, which would enable continuous achievement of the needed results. (NAN)

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