Oyo State Police Command has reacted to a peaceful protest by poultry farmers in Oyo State over the kidnap of their members.
Speaking at the protest, The Poultry Farmers Association (PAN) Chairman in Oyo State, Mr Gbemisoye Agboola traced the history of kidnapping in the area to March 2, 2020, when two sisters were abducted.
“The sisters were released after four days and having paid N9 million as ransom. Not more than two days after they were released, another farmer was kidnapped. Within the space of one month, three other farmers were kidnapped within Olorunda Area.
“The case was reported to the immediate past Commissioner of Police and he promised to act on it. But the situation is getting worse now than we can bear. We believe that the protest will help to drive our demand from government and security agencies so that they can come to our aid. Poultry farmers have witnessed a lot of unpleasant times, especially at this COVID-19 period.
“We cannot sell our eggs because of lockdown while raw material and feed ingredients are too expensive now that vehicles are finding it difficult to transport materials. Inflicting more pains by the way of kidnap is torture and we cannot allow that,” he said.
While reacting to the protest, the Public Relation Officer of the Police Command in the state, SP Olygbenga Fadeyi appealed to the residents of Olorunda area of Ibadan to provide them with any useful information that could help to track the abductors of some poultry farmers in the area.
Fadeyi pointed out that there had been massive deployment of policemen to Olorunda Area to fish out the hoodlums.
“On June 1, one of the kidnappers was arrested along the axis. This is to show to the people that the police are working on the issue. Likewise other measures are being put in place and as they begin to yield results, we shall inform the people. ” he added.
