Ogun, Oyo to deploy drones against kidnappers

The Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, on Tuesday, said over 30 patrol teams have been formed between Oyo and Ogun to tackle issues of kidnapping along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

Abiodun also disclosed that drones would be deployed to cover the road, explaining that the drones would aid security agents in monitoring and seeing the activities in the area.

He said the gesture was to neutralise kidnappers abducting people on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, particularly on the Ogun section of the busiest highway in the country.

 He added that the two state governments have gone ahead and cleared both sides of the road.

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Abiodun said this on Tuesday, during the meeting with the management of an Abuja-based Newspaper in his office.

He 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.

He said “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 thirty 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 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 drones will allow us to see exactly what is happening there even before any occurrence.”