The Police Command in Ekiti on Wednesday said it had started combing all the forests suspected to be hideouts for kidnappers and rapists in the state.

The State Commissioner of Police, Mr Wilson Inalegwu, made this known while parading some suspects before newsmen in Ado-Ekiti.

Inalegwu said that with the new development, the days of hardened criminals, particularly kidnappers and rapists, were numbered.

He said that some traditional rulers and residents helped the command to identify and carry out a general survey of the forests.

Inalegwu said that the forests were located along Ise-Emure Road and Ikere-Ekiti/Igbara-Odo Road.

According to him, the command has also decided to co-opt local hunters and vigilance group in the manhunt.

He said that the special squad deployed to all the dark spots would carry out stop and search, regular patrol and combing of the forests at close intervals.

On breakthroughs recorded in recent times, the police chief said the suspects that kidnapped a Sweden-based Nigerian, Mr Emmanuel Adeleke, had been nabbed.

Inalegwu said that his men had also arrested the suspects who abducted and later murdered the command’s Pay Master, SP Idowu Taiwo in December, as well as the gang that killed Mr Kunle Esan.

He said that a suspect, who posed to be a police inspector, was arrested on Feb. 20 on Esure-Awo Road when a patrol team intercepted him and later confessed to be fake.

Inalegwu said that a student of the College of Science and Technology, Ijero-Ekiti, was arrested for allegedly tricking his friend into the hands of a 10-man gang of rapists.

“The rapists forcefully had carnal knowledge of the victim with sinister intention to initiate her into an occult group,” the police chief said.

He said that all the 26 suspects paraded at the briefing would soon be charged to court for prosecution. (NAN)

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