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

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

Adams also claimed that over 200 persons were killed in the South-West region by the kidnappers within the years under review.

The Aare Onakakanfo made this known at the fourth edition of the South-West Security Stakeholders’ Group conference held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

According to him, he always receives first hand information about kidnapping happening in any part of the communities in the region.

He said, “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.”

He further added, “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.”

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