Cultism, Strange Killings, Kidnap Worrisome In Kwara — CP

Victor Olaiya, Commissioner for police, Kwara State Police command on Tuesday expressed a worrisome crime trend in his policing territory even though as he later acknowledged, their occurrences are strongly being stemmed.

He mentioned these criminal activities as Cultism, unexplained homicidal streaks and kidnapping that leaves investigating officers confounded at the end of the day.

The CP made this disclosure to a team of reporters under Guild of Digital Journalists, GDJ, who were at the state  police headquarters to pay the police boss a visit.

GDJ are professional journalists who having practiced in main stream media now work on various digital media platforms with a view to reprofessionalism news reporting on social media.

“The killings Ara inexplicable and it happens predominantly among our more secluded Fulani brothers in the far flung remote communities of Kwara, he explained.

According to the CP while explaining the peculiar homicidal streak recorded under his command, he stated that they occur over the flimsiest of reasons.

“Imagine a brother killing brother simply because he wasn’t given what he considers his fair share of food ration.

“When grilled by our officers, the suspect stated his case remorselessly,” CP Olaiya said.

The CP didn’t mention the name of the suspect because, according to him, investigations are still on on the matter.

Even so, the police command boss said that suspects in these peculiar killings strike not just to maim but to kill.

Also linked to these are the spates of kidnap.

“They happen in remote areas even among the Fulanis.

“Unfortunately our response are hampered by slow reporting by victims.

“The remote Fulanis living in this communities chose to first report the matter to their community heads before coming to police.

“This matters in kidnap rescue operations because there is a window period within which rescue attempt is most effective.

Also, the commissioner of police remarked that the kidnappers have formidable network and appear to come from Zamfara and Kebbi.

“Interestingly while serving in Kebbi, I saw similar trend in killings there.

“There was a particular incident in Kebbi where a Fulani man reported his son to the police over threat to have him beheaded.

“Both of them were walking in a forest with the father leading the son.

“All of a sudden, the son asked the father to change position and walk behind him.

“The son said the angle the father’s head was tilting as he walked was becoming too tempting and he may no longer be able to resist the urge to lope it off with his matchet,” the CP said.

Commenting on Cultism, too, Olaiya said that command now has a handle on the situation with 80 people in prison custody between May and September of this year.

“But I must admit that cultism is a strange menace not too common in the North where I served previously.

“I got to hear of 7/7, 8/8, both anniversaries marked with killings and being observed by cultists in Kwara, He said.