Fanwo: Governor Ododo’s ‘Don’t Return Without Them’ order drove successful rescue

By Florence Kalu

The Kogi State Government has attributed the successful rescue of four persons abducted from an unauthorised NECO examination centre in Dekina Local Government Area to Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo’s immediate directive, coordinated inter-agency security operations and the strategic deployment of technology that cut off the kidnappers’ escape routes.

Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, said Governor Ododo issued a firm marching order to the State Security Adviser to ensure the victims were rescued without delay, triggering a joint operation involving the Nigerian Army, Police, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), local vigilantes and hunters, whose sustained pressure forced the abductors to abandon their captives and flee.

Speaking in an interview, Fanwo explained how the commitment of the governor and the determination of the security operatives in collaboration with local hunters and vigilantes led to the success story.

He said, “The principal decided to take a few students who could afford to pay for miracle centres to a school that’s more or less in the forest to write the exams there. When they were kidnapped, the governor of the state immediately summoned the state security advisor and mandated him to immediately coordinate security efforts to ensure their immediate rescue and within hours, the army, the police, the DSS, the civil defense, the vigilante, the local hunters; we have hundreds of them there, saturated the place. We were able to deploy technology to track the movement of those people and then all their exit points where they usually take their victims through were blocked. We cut off their logistics. I won’t explain the details. There was a tremendous pressure on them.”

According to the Commissioner, the entire forest was saturated with security operatives, saying that they had no choice than to quickly abandon the victims because of the hot pursuit, since they knew that would lead to their damage. “But we didn’t stop at that, despite the fact that we were able to rescue them. We went after the kidnappers. I won’t say so much about their fate right now but I think they’re giving account of their terrible deeds somewhere.

“I spoke with a state security advisor on that day and he confirmed to me that the marching order given by the governor is that he shouldn’t come back until those kidnapped people were rescued, and he remained there. The chairman of Dekina local government area also did a great job coordinating the local security architecture. What’s happening in Kogi State is a different from so many other states. The synergy between security forces, the 12th brigade in Lokoja, the 21 battalion in Ayingba, the DSS, the police, the civil defense, the local security architecture all of them are working in synergy. We have what we call inter-agency cooperation and collaboration in Kogi State and that was why the good news came.”

Speaking further, he said, “In the evening of Thursday, at about past four, the governor was inspecting some armored tactical vehicles that were procured to reinforce the onslaught on these criminals and while inspecting those tactical vehicles, he also spoke to the media and assured the people of the state that the kidnapped victims would be rescued. Just a few hours after that interview, the good news came.”