By Oyibo Salihu
Lokoja
Kogi state Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has warned criminal elements and their sponsors to relocate from the state or face the full wrath of the law.
Bello, who was speaking against the backdrop of incessant kidnappings and other criminal activities, said there was no hiding place for criminals in the state.
The governor gave the waning in Lokoja, yesterday, while receiving four units of mobile policemen and 32-member special anti-robbery squad and a helicopter deployed by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase, to rid the state of the high rise in the activities of the hoodlums.
He said: “The state government is ever ready to give all the necessary support to the security agents in the state to assist in tackling the menace of kidnapping which he noted had given Kogi state a bad image.
“In my inauguration speech, I vowed a state where citizens will sleep with their two eyes closed, where people will do their legitimate business without hindrance, where travellers will pass through the state without any harassment or molestation by any criminal.
“But in recent time the increase in crime wave is worrisome and as a result of that, I cried to the President of this country and the Inspector-General of Police and today we are receiving four units of mobile policemen from the IGP including special anti robbery squad and a helicopter. These men will face the criminals squarely until they bring them to their knees.”
The governor, who assured the security agents of his total support in the fight against criminality in the state, said his administration would not spare anybody who aid and abate criminal activities in the state.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Police in charge of the state, Mr. Yakubu Usman, disclosed that the IG of Police in his magnanimity deployed 32 special Squad to the state and four units of mobile policemen to get rid of kidnappers who have been terrorising the people of the state.
