It was gathered that the victims were kidnapped in the late hours of last Tuesday and were rescued on Thursday, while the suspects were arrested thereafter.

A source said the victims, who were prospective corps members travelling from Ondo town to the Kaduna State National Youth Service Corps orientation camp, were abducted by gunmen on their way.

According to the source, the victims are three males and three females.

The source said, “Having been informed about the incident, the men of the Amotekun Corps in Ondo town sent out a rescue team in search of the victims and discovered that they were in a town in Kogi State.

“In collaboration with some security men in Kogi State, the victims were rescued, while the perpetrators were apprehended.”

The Corps Commander of Amotekun in Ondo State, Adetunji Adeleye, said the corps received a call from a family member of one of the victims, who is an indigene of Ondo town that she was abducted on her way to the orientation camp in Kaduna State.

Adeleye said, “It was late in the night. Hours after the incident, we succeeded in getting the number, which the kidnappers used in contacting the families of the victims and demanding N10m, and we immediately did the tracking.

We got their location, which showed that they were somewhere around Ijara in Kogi State, which is not too far from Kabba. We deployed our men from Ondo to the nearest local government to the location in Kogi State, who worked alongside the security agencies over there for a successful operation.

“We were there for almost two days, mounting pressure on them. We did lots of tracking to get to their location. They wanted N10m, but we were able to reduce it to N2m. We stylishly agreed and asked them to send an account number, where the money would be sent to. We sent N1m into the account and tracked the owner of the account. We realised it was a First Bank account in Kogi State. We went after the kidnappers with the support of the DPO of the affected area and we succeeded.”

The Amotekun boss disclosed that two suspects were arrested, including the owner of the account.

According to him, the two suspects have been handed over to the Kogi State Police Command, while the six victims have been safely rescued.

Amotekun officials of Osun, Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti states, who spoke separately with our correspondents, said they had got credible intelligence that terrorists fleeing military operations in the North-West would seek refuge in the forests of the southern states.

Amotekun personnel, therefore said they had started combing forests in the region for the fleeing terrorists from the North-West.

As South-West states beefed up security, groups including the  Arewa Consultative Forum; the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, lamented recent killings in the country,  particularly in Zamfara, where 200 people were killed, as well as  Plateau, Ondo and Enugu states.

The group said recent statements on insecurity by President Buhari showed that he was not in touch with reality.

Berating the President, the ACF  said insecurity had worsened in the country since he assumed office in 2015 despite his military credentials.

The ACF noted with sadness that the President was elected partly because Nigerians believed he had all it took to crush any form of security challenges but the reverse remained the case.

The forum through its National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe, stated these in reaction to the sustained killings in Zamfara, Niger and bandits attacks in Ondo, Enugu, Benue and Plateau, and other parts of the country.

In January 2021, southwest governors launched Amotekun as a regional outfit to tackle challenges of insecurity, including kidnapping and banditry.

Farounbi now says the fact that Amotekun personnel are drawn from the grassroots, and they understand the culture and language of the people differentiates them from the police.

He said Amotekun should be well-funded to enable the outfit to achieve its security mandate, as well as discourage operatives from extorting citizens.

He said. “They can be informal without being regimented like other agencies. They are feared more by bandits and criminals. Amotekun is one of the best decisions made by the government. For now, I know it is not adequately funded. I know the Amotekun security outfit would love to have at least 15 to 25 persons per local government area in Oyo state, but they need funds. When an agency is well funded and the welfare of the personnel is well taken care of to compensate for the dangers they face from bandits, kidnappers among others, the tendency to extort would not be there.”

Scores of angry youths in the capital city conveyed the corpse as they protested along the Agodi Secretariat Road.

The 40-year-old when interrogated said he is part of a syndicate that exhumes the corpse of deceased persons and sells their vital organs to prospective buyers.

Commandant of Amotekun Corps in the state, Col Olayinka Olayanju (retd), while parading the suspect, said items recovered from the suspect included guns, charms, decaying body parts, motorcycles, and a car.

Olayanju said unnamed individuals have been “mounting pressure on him to release the suspect.”

He explained that domesticating the police outfit will make it easier to effectively tackle crimes in different communities.

“It is long overdue, we should make it happen. In fact, that is one of the critical things that I believe will help us. It has been said over and over again,” he said.

The Governor, who spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics at the Lagos House, said apart from community policing, operatives of the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps also engage in border patrol.

He explained that operatives of LNSC are currently doing the work of Amotekun in the state.

“It’s just a name change in the case of Lagos. I appreciate what my colleague governors are doing, and they also appreciate the peculiar nature of Lagos.

“I have got over 7,000 neighbourhood watch personnel in Lagos, who are doing exactly the same thing that we have Amotekun doing.

“They are there at the border post giving us daily monitoring in their localities and feeding it back to the central. They are the ones feeding us with information. But they cannot carry arms and prosecute people.

“The borders that I have in Lagos are outside of the Atlantic Ocean is Ogun state,”Sanwo-Olu said.

A statement signed by the Secretary of Amotekun Board, Hassan Agbelekale, titled ‘Recruitment into Amotekun Corps’, said the government would commence recruitment of suitably qualified candidates into the corps in Osun.

The statement read in parts, “Government of Osun wishes to inform the general public that the Osun Security Network Agency and Amotekun Corps will commence the recruitment of suitably qualified candidates into Amotekun Corps. All interested candidates across all 30 local governments and area offices of the state are to collect free application forms at the Government House Annex, Oke Fia, Osogbo, from Monday 12th April 2021 between 10 am and 4 pm daily, and submit their forms latest by Friday, 23rd April 2021 at the same venue.”

Speaking at Efon Alaaye during a sensitisation tour to Ekiti West, Efon Alaaye and Ijero Local government areas of the State, Komolafe averred that the neglect of traditional culture and patterns of exposing criminals is one of the reasons for the rising spate of crimes in the South-West region. He charged traditional rulers to deploy their supernatural prowess to secure the lives and properties of their people.

Komolafe said  “We want people that can enter the bush and give us native intelligence about criminal hideouts. People before us rose and fought invaders, we also want to rise and fight invaders. These invaders came with all forms of impunity, they kill, maim, rape and destroy people’s farm produce.”

Alhaji Yaqub Bello, a former Chairman of MACBAN in the state, made the suggestion on Monday February 24th during a public hearing on the Oyo State Security Network Agency Bill, 2020, also known as Amotekun bill.

Taking to Twitter to air his objection, FFK wrote
“Recruiting Miyetti Allah into Amotekun is like recruiting demons into an army of angels. It’s like recruiting hyenas into an army of lions. It’s like recruiting vultures into an army of eagles. It’s like recruiting sharks into an army of dolphins. Simply put: KO LE WERK! It’s like recruiting Nazis into the Israeli Defence Force. It’s like recruiting the Ku Klux Klan into the ranks of the Black Panthers. It’s like recruiting Hutus into an Army ofTutsis. It’s like recruiting the white Boers into Nelson Mandela’s ANC. I say it again: KO LE WERK!”

The lawmaker stated this on Monday at a public hearing on a bill to establish the security operation in Lagos state, adding that the outfit had become important for the security of the lives and properties of the people of the region.

“I’m sure we all recall the incidents before the establishment of Amotekun, the killings, maiming, kidnapping and their likes.

“In the wisdom of our governors, they decided on Amotekun,” Obasa said.

Obasa pointed to the fact that the idea had stirred different reactions around the country but insisted the South West cannot relent in the zone’s bid to ensure people are safe.

The Speaker recalled that the Neighbourhood Watch was established in Lagos in 2016 and now other states have queued into the idea thus making it important for it to be amended to accommodate Amotekun.

Obasa further explained that the bill on Amotekun would be accommodated in the existing law, adding that “Amotekun has come to stay and we must stand by it.”

“Our race has spoken and we must stand by it but in line with the constitution.”