Residents accused of importing and harboring herders and terrorists for kidnappings, Edo government says

The Edo State Government has accused certain residents of sheltering herders and suspected terrorists in their homes, allegedly facilitating kidnappings within the state.

According to the Daily Post, Festus Ebea, the Commissioner for Public Safety and Security, made the claim on Wednesday during a press briefing organized by the State Ministry of Information and Strategy.

Ebea said the suspects now “rear human beings as if they are rearing animals.” He added that some of those involved in harboring the herders and terrorists have been arrested, including the suspects themselves and their accomplices.

He reported that the arrested kidnappers confessed to how they were brought into and housed within the state.

“Unfortunately, from our security perspective we have discovered that some of our people keep herders and terrorists in their houses and direct them to where there is business to be done,” Ebea said. “Some suspects are now at the station; both the accomplices and the kidnappers themselves have confessed to how they were brought in and housed.”

“When they take people, they take them into the bush and begin to ‘rear human beings as if they are rearing cows,’” he added.

Ebea, a former Deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, also announced that the state government will recruit 1,000 forest guards. He said 500 of the guards already recruited are currently undergoing training at the Police Training School in Benin City, and plans are underway to recruit an additional 500 in line with President Bola Tinubu’s directive.

The forest guards will be deployed in hotspot areas across Edo state. “Special attention is given to local government areas such as Etsako East and Etsako, where some communities have witnessed the influx and attacks in the bushes of neighboring states like Kogi, Kwara, and Ondo,” he said.

“In Etsako West we have the Igbira camp. We have Akoko Edo, which has many mineral deposits, and of course, Etsako East, where a large number of people are taken by these criminal elements,” Ebea continued.

He added that Ovia North-East and Ovia South-West local governments also experience infiltration, with outsiders using waterways to abduct members of the Edo community.

“We are working to increase the number of forest guards who will operate in the bush, securing our farmers and ensuring that the bush becomes unsafe for these elements,” he concluded.