A suspected kidnapper and child trafficker, Tayo Adeleke has confessed to how he and other members of his gang had been kidnapping children to sell in neighbouring Benin Republic.
He made the confession after he was apprehended by the men of Ogun State police command for his alleged involvement in a notorious child trafficking ring.
Adeleke and his accomplices were caught red-handed attempting to abduct children from a local Baptist church at Omu Pempe community in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State on Tuesday, Dec. 26.
It was gathered that the suspects had stormed the Baptist church in Omu Pempe around 2a.m. today, Dec. 26, with a motorcycle.
Their mission was to steal children from the church and sell them in the Republic of Benin.
However, an operative of the So-Safe Corps got a distress call, which she shared with the Divisional Police Officer in the area.
“When the three men were challenged about their mission in the village, they could not give any cogent explanation as they attempted to flee,” a source said.
During the rigorous interrogation, Adeleke confessed that their plan was to kidnap children and offload them in the Republic of Benin.
The Ogun State Police Command, led by Commissioner of Police CP Abiodun Alamutu, is leveraging the obtained information to hunt down the remaining members of this illicit syndicate.
Omolola Odutola, the spokesperson for the Ogun State Police, highlighted an alarming trend. He said that while the police have fortified the highways, kidnappers have shifted their focus to remote communities.
Odutola said: “Going into communities to kidnap is the new trend now. We have taken over the highways in Ogun. You will see policemen on the road now. But the kidnappers have gotten into the inner villages to start disturbing them. We will get them, we are going back to the drawing board. Criminals have no place in this state.
“So, we are calling on our traditional rulers and our community leaders in the State to establish like an internal security to barricade the entry and exit points to their communities; and give security agents the necessary information to aid the security of lives and property. Villagers can easily identify strangers in their communities, so they should help the police. Thank God this was a foiled one.
“The Ogun State Command under the Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alamutu, will not relent until criminals are flushed out of Ogun, wherever they are.”
