Retired AIG Tunde Ogunsakin Counsels Kidnapped Victims To Stop Paying Ransoms

The former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin has counselled the kidnapped victims in the Country to stop paying ransom to kidnappers just as he also advised the Nigerian Government and the Security Agencies to take the issue of intelligence gathering, provisions of modern security gadgets to the Country’s Security Agencies and ensure the establishment and effectiveness of the community police as antedote to the mirage of security breaches in the Country.

AIG Ogunsakin who berates the payment of ransom to kidnappers, said “as long as the agent of kidnaps are being paid ransoms for their nefarious activities,  they would continue to kidnap and it would become lucrative for them if not checked on time”.

Speaking further, “he called on the victims of kidnap to put an end to paying ransoms to kidnappers. I want to specifically advise the victims and their relatives to stop such practice. If they continue, kidnapping will be rampant and it would be made lucrative if the victims do not stop paying it”.

AIG Ogunsakin gave the advice in a chat with the Treasure Newspaper at his country home, Ikere Ekiti on Thursday. He said “he was worried about the security lapses in the country, saying urgent and decisive actions needed to be taken to flush out the perpetrators of the heinous activities”.

Proffering solutions to the menace, the security expert enjoined government to fund intelligence gathering and procure sophisticated gadgets to flush out the criminals from their hideouts.

“Intelligence and well equipped security men are the ways to go, the era of carrying gun alone and staying in the cities are gone. We should be offensive and take the battle against kidnappers to their hideouts and fish them out. Even there should be ways terrorists and kidnappers can be caught through the ransoms they collected”.

Ogunsakin stressed further that community policing would be helpful in fighting crimes, saying the police and other sister forces should be ready to live their comfort zones in the cities, comb the forest where marauders are perpetrating evil and flush them out.

Meanwhile, “the retired AIG Tunde Ogunsakin who specifically in his own words admitted that, Nigeria as a Country is being faced with diverse  security challenges, revealed that the issue of Kidnapping has been very disturbing and hoped that, with time, the security agencies in the Country will rise up to it’s challenge”, he muted.

Ogunsakin who posited further, “advised the Police to be more appreciated for finding the incidences of kidnapping all around them. He averred how it is very disheartening to note that Kidnappers will just kidnap people at random, collect ransoms and gets away with it without being apprehended or being tracked down by the security agencies”. 

He expressed his sadness how Kidnappers in the Country kidnaps people at will, and collects ransoms and go away with it without any attempt being made to look for them even after they have collected the ransoms. 

“My own take is, if really, we cannot stop them from taking the ransoms before they released there victims, we must be able to find a way to trace them, otherwise, it will continue unabated”, he declared. 

Also, he said, “his position on kidnappings is not to continue to pay but urged Nigerians that they should look for them anywhere they are because they live among them”.

Ogunsakin maintained that “we must take this offence into the territories of these kidnappers by making use of technology to tacur them. I used to feel very saddened how people are being kidnapped. 

He queried why they can’t be traced irregardless of the cost it will take or monies to be expended to acquire modern technologies to combat them once and for all.

“These people are nothing but racktagged. They can’t defeat what is called intelligence. Nigerians should  realized that they cannot do any serious Policing operations during investigations or anything without intelligence. Intelligence is key. If you don’t do any intelligence, you will just be grouping in the dark. Intelligence is the core. I think Police has to go back to the days of the CIB, Central Intelligence Bureau for every Police Station across the Country.

Those are the places where intelligence can be gotten”.

He added that, “many people in our communities stayed away and are not usually ready to talk to the police to volunteer informations of crimes in their areas. If they know people are not going to pay, they won’t bother venturing into kidnapping businesses. It is encouraging to them to kidnaps people for ransoms, that is what they have being doing”, he noted. 

Also, reacting to the issue of the bandits and the bokoharam sects taking over some parts of the northern States in the Country, Ogunsakin commended the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, and other Security Agencies for able to attain an appreciable progress in the fight against bandits and terrorists in the north east and across the North Central and other places.

He used the opportunity to assure Nigerians that the Air force is working together with the Nigerian Army and the Police in those areas and said, he can tell Nigerians that a lot of efforts is being put in place already to quash the activities of the bokoharam. 

He called on the top echelons of the Country’s security architectures to note that intelligence is key and stressed the need for the current leadership in the Country to invest heavily on intelligence just like the British and America governments have been doing.

The Ikere Ekiti born retired Police Chief also advised Nigerians to take the issue of community policing more serious and called on the people living in all the Nigerians communities to always volunteer informations that can help the Security Agencies to apprehend and nip in the board the activities of kidnappers and criminals in the Country.