AKURE – People of Ondo State are cur-rently living in fear as kidnap-pers and killers are on the prowl again. No doubt, the people heaved a sigh of relief from the heinous ac-tivities of gunmen and killers from the month of May to June. But the break was, indeed, short-lived by the killing of the Registrar of University of Medical Sciences, UNIMED, Ondo, Ezekiel Adeniran, on July 18. His death has generated serious concern over his family’s claim that the deceased was forced to drink poison. The police said they were doing every thing possible to unravel the lies surrounding the case. An official the force said: “I can confirm to you that the man was killed. From the information I have at my disposal, two men came out of the bush and they forced a sub-stance into another person’s mouth. “But I can’t confirm to you where it actually happened, but our area of interest is to unravel who is re-sponsible for his death.” The state government has or-dered coroner Inquest into the death of the Registrar as the family insisted that he was forced to drink poison at gun point. Dr. Dickson Ogunfuyi, a Chief Magistrate and Head of the Ondo State Multi-Door Court, has been appointed to serve as the cor-oner. KIDNAPPERS BECOME MORE DARING Meanwhile, kidnappers have become so daring that they visit homes and shops of their victims to pick them up. The Northern Senatori-al District of the state is the most affected area of the state, and the host community of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, appears to have been chosen as centre of operations. Students and staff of the institution have been their targets in recent times. Their last operation took place at Ogbese in Akure North Local Government Area, which is about 15min-utes drive to the state capital, Akure. The people of the state are jittery over revelations that the criminals recently abduct-ed a woman, Mrs Orogun, in a commando style in the heart of the community. According to police ac-count, Okudili Okoro (male, 34 years old) was shot dead at the scene while Mrs Orogun was whisked away by the unknown gunmen number-ing about 10 in two vehicles, namely an unregistered Sil-ver coloured Honda car, pop-ularly known as EOD. The Honda car headed to-wards Akure after the oper-ation, while the other unreg-istered grey colour Toyota Camry headed towards Owo after the attack. At Akungba-Akoko, An-drel Eloho Okah, a student of Department of History and International Studies in the Faculty of Art, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akung-ba-Akoko (AAUA), and John Friday Abba, a student in the Department of Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, were both abducted by gunmen in July. They were abducted while cruising in town in John’s Lexus RX 350 SUV and taken into the forest where their bodies were later found. Police arrested the per-petrators and recovered the vehicle in Ekiti State where it had broken down. Another victim of syn-dicated kidnapping is the Faculty Officer, Faculty of Education, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Omoniyi Eleyinmi. His abduction was initi-ated and coordinated by the commercial motorcyclist, popularly known as Okada rider, who usually conveyed him to and from office every day. The 45-year-old Benson Alaba, an indigene of Supare- Akoko, connived with two armed Fulani men who ab-ducted the victim from his sitting room. Benson visited the victim shortly before he was abduct-ed to ensure he was at home before the armed members of his gang went in to abduct him. At Iju-Itagbolu in Akure North Local Government Area of the state, a man was also approaching the town in the evening on his motorcycle when he sighted an indigene of the town simply identified as Gabriel in company of some armed Fulani men. He quickly made a u-turn and the armed men shot at him and he was hit in the back. When he fell down, he managed to crawl from the spot and his attackers went away with his motorcycle. Indigenes of the town who were going to their farms the following morning saw the victim who had become very weak after losing much blood overnight. They recognized him but he was only able to mumble ‘Gabriel’ before he breathed his last. In Ondo town, drug ped-dlers and cultists also lurk around waiting for targets to show up, and in this manner they have killed many people. It was revealed at a stake-holders meeting held in the town at the instance of the immediate past State Police Commissioner, Wilfred Afola-bi, in June, that cultists were being used by politicians to settle scores. CRY FOR ACTION Residents have called for law enforcement agents to embark on raiding of motor parks where illicit drugs are sold. Such raids have recently sent many illicit drugs ped-dlers fleeing after the police identified them. Regardless, they have been declared wanted by the Police. However, one of the illicit drug peddlers shot dead an operative of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) a couple of weeks ago in the town during a raid of the store where they had stockpiled their drugs. The sudden resurgence of abductions has unsettled the State Police Command, espe-cially after perpetrators of the crimes in the state had been arrested. Residents in many com-munities have expressed sadness at the fact that their communities are largely left unpoliced. Among their observations is that lack of security patrol in well-known flash points, es-pecially in the Iju area where kidnappers operate from time to time, has made the people vulnerable to attacks. Iju is a boundary town be-tween Ondo State and Ekiti State, but motorists have since abandoned the road because of the activities of kidnap-pers who operate in the area in broad daylight. Operatives of Amotekun Corps, a couple of weeks ago, had a cross-fire with gunmen who had abducted some farm-ers on their farms in the town forests. This is perhaps why some observers have called for joint operations by all security agencies in the state, includ-ing the military, in order for them to be able to comb the forest reserves across the Central and Northern Sena-torial Districts of the state in order to be able to apprehend the kidnappers hibernating in the forests. They noted that it’s being long joint operation was car-ried out by security agencies along with Amotekun Corps. Along this lines, the Owo Local Council Chairman, Tope Omolayo, has recruited indigenes drawn from towns and villages in the local gov-ernment area into the vigilan-te corps. They are being trained in information gathering and other aspects of security to prevent a recurrence of the deadly attacks on Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church. More local government areas in the state may soon adopt the Omolayo security measure as crime keeps es-calating on a daily basis in the state. STATE RESCUE EFFORTS Meanwhile, the people of the state have acknowledged the efforts of the state govern-ment in fighting insecurity through the recent provision of operational vehicles to all security agencies in the state, and they have also requested Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to do more by providing Hi- Tech equipment that would aid the operations of the se-curity agencies. There have similarly been calls for the provision of drones and trackers by the state government for joint use by all the security agencies. Observers note that if these equipment are procured, it would reduce risk-taking by security operatives as gun-men would be located at their hideouts and rounded up with less use of firearms. Some victims of kidnap-ping, who preferred anonymi-ty, revealed that some commu-nity heads of villages whose forests armed Fulanis used as hideouts, and in which they were kept, were accomplices of the kidnappers as they received shares from the ran-som paid by victims. They indicted traditional heads of some villages in Ak-ure North Local Government Area of the state. Consequently, concerned residents have declared that it is necessary and urgent that the state governor convene a security meeting to be attend-ed by civil and traditional community heads and other stakeholders in the state. The said the governor should issue an order that any community leader whose domain is used as hideout by kidnappers would be relieved of his or her title and held re-sponsible for any kidnap inci-dent in their domains.