By Tola Gbadamosi
Operatives of South-West Security Network codenamed Amotekun paraded two suspected criminals pretending as mad men in Ondo State.
The State Commandant of Amotekun, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, stated this on Wednesday while parading 26 criminals at his headquarters in Akure.
According to Adeleye, the suspects who had been constituting security risk and nuisance, were arrested within in the last one week.
The commander, who advised the public to be weary of those that pretend to be mad people, however, said expensive phones were found on one of the mad man, while the other one hacked his landlord to death and started behaving like a mad man.
“We have two cases and it’s becoming rampant, almost every week. Searching these mad people, we found expensive phones and we found out that majority of them only pretended to be mad in order to gather informations in the particular area where they intend to operate. We have two of them, one from Idanre and one from Igbara Oke,” he said.
The commandant, however, said the general public should inform security agencies if they notice any unusual movement of any mad or lunatic people.
“It is actually dangerous to accost a mad man, anything could happen, thereafter. The best thing is to give us a timely information and we will contact relevant security organisations to assist in ensuring that they are brought to book.
“Also, the Ministry of Women Affairs in the state is also collaborating with us on all these, especially if we have timely information,”he added.
Adeleye also revealed that a gang of kidnappers, that killed their victims that came from Ogun State were also arrested with the collaboration from Ogun Amotekun and also located the family of the victim.
“Because the first part of that crime actually took place in Ogun State, So, we are set to handover the suspect who had been on the wanted list of Ogun State police to the police command of Ogun State any moment from now.
“Last week, we assisted the Federal Road Safety Corps in enforcing the abuse on registration number on vehicles and motorbikes, so, we are open to all agencies for such assistance.
“We have another syndicate of armed robbers that operate on the highways that were caught in the act.
”Some of them actually opened fire on our men on patrol while they were caught in the act of armed robbery. So, all of them totalling 26 had been profiled and in conjunction with the office of the public prosecution will take them through the normal prosecution process,” he said.
The Amotekun commander, however, reassured the good people of Ondo State that while relying immensely on their support for timely information, would continue to work hard to ensure that the society is rid of criminal activities
“Our message for the criminals is that there’s no hiding place for them in Ondo State,”he said
One of the suspects, a farmer, Akinmola Oyekanmi, 30, attested that he had done two successful kidnappings and mistakenly shot the victim whom they kidnapped along Mowe in Ogun State.
Oyekanmi said he had not collected any ransom before the death of the man and were three that carried out the operation but the rest have ran away.