The Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Ochei, yesterday in Asaba, the state capital, accused some officers of the state Police Command of sowing the seed of kidnapping and robbery in the state.
Ochei spoke against the backdrop of the kidnap and eventual release of the mother of the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okojo-Iweala.
Speaking while reviewing the activities of the Assembly for the outgoing year at the Assembly complex in Asaba, the Speaker alleged that the former Head of Anti-Kidnap Squad at the state police headquarters, Adeyemi Osamwonyi, planted the seed of the crime in the state.
According to the Speaker, the periodic assessment of the activities of the state command, gave the Assembly the strength and vigour to tackle the challenge posed by hoodlums before Osamwonyi was kicked out of the state.
“We have not reversed our resolution on CSP Adeyemi Osamwonyi over the kidnapping activities in the state. The seed he planted has since germinated and it is growing every day, the effect of which we are all experiencing today.
“While we lament the manifest challenges of insecurity that have befallen our country in recent times, kidnapping and terrorism has become a thriving business. It was in response to this that we passed the Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Terrorism Bills to adequately stem the tide of a recurring malady.
“Kidnapping is a manifestation of desperado which also makes it imperative to apply desperate measures to tackle it,” he said.
The Assembly had six months ago, in a desperate measure to stem the tide of the crime in the state, passed a resolution demanding re-arrest of CSP Osamwonyi and full scale investigation into the alleged involvement of the chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Parry Osayande.
Although, the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar, reacted by saying he had no substantial fact to connect the CSP to the alleged offence, he however urged anybody with useful information to nail him to volunteer it, even as he redeployed the CSP to one of the northern state.
In another development, Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba and his men have launched a manhunt for Kidnappers’ kingpin in Delta State Mr Kevin just as he confirmed that the kidnap kingpins in the state are now recruiting graduates and undergraduates to carry out their diabolical schemes.
An exclusive report published by Vanguard reported that the kingpin of the kidnapping syndicate in Delta State is a ‘Kelvin’ from Kokori, Ethiope-East Local Government Area.
He is the kidnap entrepreneur that controls a slice of the N750 million a month industry in the South East/ South West.
According to Aduba, “Kelvin is the most dangerous kidnapper in Delta State and we are looking for him”.
Aduba also disclosed that virtually all the okada men in the town are his informants which make it difficult to arrest Kelvin. He also alluded to the fact that there are insiders in the security agencies that also provide Kelvin with information.