'South-West kidnap victims paid N3bn in two years' - Gani Adams

The Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, on Thursday claimed that not less than N3bn was paid as ransom to rescue about 400 people kidnapped in the South-West in a period of two years.

Adams also lamented that over 200 persons were killed in the South-West region by the kidnappers within the years under review.The Aare Onakakanfo said this at the fourth edition of the South-West Security Stakeholders’ Group conference held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

He claimed that he always received first hand information about kidnapping happening in any part of the communities in the region.Adams described the conference is an opportunity to bring all security agencies together so as to enhance his capacity.

He added, “As the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, I am privy to some certain information that certain security organisations do not have. When things happened in any community, they will call my line that Aare, what can you do? 

“Unfortunately, I don’t have enough power to act like the olden days Aare, but I am doing my own bit as a person that has a liberation organisation.”

Adams, who regretted that the region had been ravaged by killer herdsmen, stated that should Yoruba leaders fail to act, the region might record same experience in the North.

He appealed to the Federal Government to consider regionalism as an option to rescuing the country from its current situation.

He said, “When you quantify the amount of ransom that has been paid in Oke-Ogun, Ibarapa, Ekiti, Akoko and Yewa, it is even more than N3 billion. 

“When you quantify those people that were killed, maimed in all these jurisdictions, they are more than 400 people.

“There’s need for self-government or regionalism in the country where states governors would control the police and other security architectures of their states. 

“In the North, the story is even worse; bandits have taken over the entire North-East, North-West and Central. In Kaduna for instance, about 500 schools have been shut indefinitely.”