Amotekun Corps steps up patrols along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in response to growing attacks

REGIONAL security network the Amotekun Corps has stepped up its operations along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway over the last week following a spate of gruesome attacks of late that have involved hoodlums launching raids from the surrounding forests.

Of late, there has been an increase in the rate of kidnapping in area with the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway becoming a major flashpoint across the southwest. In response, the police and the Amotekun Corps have announced major operations to flush out kidnappers and other criminals from forests and other strategic locations in the area.

Apart from numerous abductions in the different states in the geo-political zone, in recent weeks, there have been a series of kidnappings and attacks on the busy highway that connects Oyo and Ogun states with Lagos. Last Wednesday, gunmen emerged from the bush and attacked travellers, dispossessing them of their valuables in before they fled back into the forest.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Lagos-bound 18-passenger bus was attacked close to the Sagamu interchange, leaving passengers with varying degrees of injury. About a week earlier, some travellers, including a former deputy vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Adigun Agbaje and a student of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, were abducted close to the Sat Guru Maharaji Garden in Ibadan, Oyo State.

In their response to the rising attacks, the various security outfits said they were making efforts to address insecurity in the region. Away from the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway for instance, Sunday Abutu, a spokesman for the Ekiti State Police Command said that over the last two weeks, law enforcement agents had been combing local forests with a view to ridding them of criminals.

Mr Abutu added: “For over two weeks now, policemen have been combing the forests in the state. It is ongoing and it will continue so as to ensure that criminal elements do not infiltrate the state or our forests.

“As I speak with you, our men are combing the forests and ensuring that the criminal elements are possibly arrested or chased out of the state. We have made some breakthroughs.”

He noted that no fewer than 10 suspects were arrested by the police during the exercise. Similarly, the  Ekiti State commandant of the Amotekun Corps, Brigadier Joe Komolafe, said officers and men of the corps were embarking on constant monitoring of the forests as well carrying out special operations to flush out criminal elements.

Brigadier Komolafe added:  “We go on regular patrols, at times, we go with other security agencies and sometimes we go alone. We will be proactive and not reactive and we are also collaborating with the locals, hunters, traditional rulers and other vigilance groups because they may see these people before we see them."