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Misturah Olatunji
The Ogun State police commissioner, Lanre Bankole on Monday, denied his men’s involvement in payment of ransom by relatives of kidnapped victims to kidnappers in the State.
He made this known during the parade of some suspects at the state police headquarters, Eleweran,Abeokuta .
PLATFORM TIMES had gathered that most of the kidnapping cases in the state ended after the payment of ransom by the relatives of the victims to the kidnappers .
Reacting to the development, the commissioner of police, explained that policemen give priority to the safety of the victims above any other things.
He said,”the issue of payment of ransom when victims are kidnapped, to the best of my knowledge, if ransoms were paid, it is not to the knowledge of the police
“I also want to make this fact that when handling cases of kidnapping, our first concern which is very paramount is the safety and wellbeing of the hostage or hostages, there will not be any point in rescuing a dead hostage and that is why we always rely on technical aid.
“I cannot categorically confirm or deny that ransoms are paid but, I can say, this is not to the knowledge of the police.
“In the cause of our investigation, those of them who have been arrested, we try to go after them to see if there are money that can be traced to them and when we are able establish this, we bring them to court.”
