By Temitope Adedeji
The Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun says his administration will end the recent surge of kidnapping in the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, particularly on the Ogun section of the busiest highway in the country.
The governor said this when he hosted the management of the Leadership Newspapers in his office on Tuesday.
He also disclosed that the state, in conjunction with its Oyo State counterpart, has set up a joint security team to beef-up security along the expressway.
In his words, words: “We set up a joint security team with the Oyo State Government because we found out that the majority of these incidences are right at the border between us and Oyo State. They take advantage of that area as a blind spot.
“As we speak today, I think, there are not less than 30 patrol teams on that corridor of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. These teams comprise soldiers, policemen, operatives from the DSS, men of the Civil Defence and vigilantes.
“The last thing we want is for people to travel with the fear of being kidnapped and nothing can be more terrible as we approach the Yuletide season.
“We’ve also gone ahead and cleared both sides of the road, because of that element of surprise that they introduce when they just jump out of the bushes and then kidnap and run away, so, we have approached our contractors to clear 50 meters on each side so it makes it difficult for them to use the bushes to hide.
“We are going beyond deployment of security teams. We are deploying drones to cover that road. These are drones that will allow us to see exactly what is happening there even before any occurrence.”
