The governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, promised on Tuesday that his administration and the government of Oyo State would prevent kidnappers from kidnapping victims on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, particularly on the Ogun sector of the busiest road in the country.

This admission was made by Abiodun, who also revealed that the state and Oyo State have formed a joint security team to increase security along the expressway while hosting the management of the Leadership Newspapers in his office.

He also explained that the collaboration with Oyo was done in order to ensure that the hot spots between Lagos and Oyo States were adequately covered by security teams to the management of the Abuja-based newspaper that had come to inform him of his nomination as the newspaper’s Governor of the Year.

In order to address kidnapping issues along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, he claimed that over thirty patrol teams had been established between Oyo and Ogun. He also stated that both sides of the road had been cleared by the two state governments.

In his words, “We set up a joint security team with the Oyo State government because we found out that the majority of these incidences are right at the border between us and Oyo State, they take advantage of that area as a blind spot.”

“As we speak today, I think, there are not less than thirty patrol teams on that corridor of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. These teams comprise soldiers, policemen, operatives from the DSS, men of the Civil Defence, and vigilantes.”

“The last thing we want is for people to travel with the fear of being kidnapped and nothing can be more terrible as we approach the Yuletide season.”

“We’ve also gone ahead and cleared both sides of the road, because of that element of surprise that they introduce when they just jump out of the bushes and then kidnap and run away, so, we have approached our contractors to clear 50 meters on each side so it makes it difficult for them to use the bushes to hide,” Abiodun stated.

Drones would help security personnel monitor and observe local activity, according to the state helmsman, who announced that they would be used to cover the road.

“We are going beyond deployment of security teams, we are deploying drones to cover that road. These are drones that will allow us to see exactly what is happening there even before any occurrence,” he stated.

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