The Edo State Commissioner for Public Safety and Security, Festus Ebea, has alleged that some residents are exploiting the country’s security challenges to bring criminal elements from outside the state for kidnapping and other violent crimes.

The commissioner disclosed this on Wednesday in Benin during the monthly briefing organised by the Ministry of Information and Strategy.

He alleged that some individuals in the state harboured herdsmen under the guise of assisting them in cattle rearing, but later used them for kidnapping operations.

He said, “From our security lenses, we have found out that some of our youths now keep herdsmen and the terrorists in their houses and point out to them where there is kidnapping business to do.”

According to him, some suspects arrested by security agencies confessed that they were brought into the state by local accomplices.

He added, “The arrested accomplices and kidnappers have confessed to how they were brought in and housed. And when they kidnapped people, they take them into the bush like cows.”

He said efforts to tackle insecurity included the deployment of 500 forest guards currently undergoing training to secure forests across the state, adding that the Federal Government recently approved an additional 500 personnel, bringing the total to 1,000.

He also said the administration of Governor Monday Okpebholo has engaged 300 members of the Edo State Security Corps in each of the 18 local government areas, totalling 5,400 personnel, to strengthen the state’s security architecture.