The Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Security, AIG Olusola Subair (retd), on Monday said he could not confirm whether a Boko Haram kingpin was arrested or not in Ogun State by operatives of the Department of State Service(DSS).
Subair told The Nation he read a report of the arrest of a Boko Haram leader in Ijaiye area of Abeokuta, the State capital, stating only the DSS could know about the incident.
He also debunked claim by Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, that Boko Haram terrorists are already hibernating in the State and were setting up camps in Ogun forests.
The retired Assistant Inspector General of Police(AIG) said steady intelligence report at its disposable does not support Adams’ assertion, saying the State engages in routine random sweeping of all forests with the help of the military to rid it of miscreants, hoodlums and kidnappers.
He said: “We are working on intelligence here and there is no intelligence telling us that there are Boko Haram members in any forest here(Ogun State). We have our own share of crimes but it is not as if we had Boko Haram in our forests.
“We randomly check and sweep our forests with the assistance of the military incase we received any intelligence that some miscreants are hiding there. That Boko Haram are in our forests, I think that is not true in short.
“I read it too that somebody, a kingpin of Boko Haram was arrested in Ogun State by the Department of State Service (DSS). What has been happening is that we have had some movement of criminal elements and activities in Ogun State but we have been making arrest all along but I can’t confirm to you that Boko Haram leader was arrested or not. I think the DSS will have to tell you anything about that.
“We have been providing security, our security agencies have been working in synergy and have been effecting arrest on some of these hoodlums, some of the miscreants in this place. So, that is the situation. Like I said, many arrest have been made with regards to kidnappings and cultism here in Ogun State.
“In the last two months, we had problems of cultism here and so many of those cultists have been arrested. And at one time or the other, we had issues of kidnappings and most of the kidnappers were arrested in Ogun State and that is why we have some respite now. So, arrest has been going on and it has not stopped. That is the situation.”
(The Nation)
