Police Strengthen Highway Patrol to Curb Robbery in 'Ember Months'

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Ademola Babalola in Ibadan
Committed to tackle the menace of armed robberies, kidnappings and ritual killings in the nation's highway during 'ember months' and festive periods, the new Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Leye Oyebade on Friday began a tour of 15 highways where the state shared boundaries with Ogun, Osun, Kwara and neighbouring Benin Republic.

Oyebade who said the era of corruption in the Force was gone for good assured the officers of adequate compensation for discharging their duties without let or hindrance.

He told reporters by the sideline of the Lagos/Ibadan expressways that his administration would not take kindly to corruption, sabotage and undue interference in the discharge of modern policing in the state.

Explaining the rationale behind the tour, Oyebade said "This is another special visit to our men on the highway. We have a lot of our men on the highway because we have at least 15 highways that connect other states and a neighbouring country.

"Among these highways are the Lagos/Ibadan highway, Ibadan-Ife, Ibadan-Abeokuta, Ogbomoso-Ilorin, Iyana-Offa/Osun border, Ibadan-Oyo, and 10 others. We have our safer highway patrol men 24hours on these roads.

They are accompanied by the patrol men and then we have mobile men who gave back up support. What we are doing is to reassure our men that we are behind them and also the members of the public that during these 'ember months', they should know that the roads are very peaceful for traveling to any parts of the country. They can travel without any iota of doubt that the road is safe against men of the underworld.

"And this is also to show that our men are combat ready to curb any nefarious activities because their presence on the highway 24hours is a relief to the road users. This is the era of proactive policing, we are making sure that these roads are not safe for armed robbers. We have recovered a lot of vehicles on these roads and we will still apprehend more.

"I have talked to my men and I have repositioned them for the task at hand. This is a new era under the IGP Solomon Arase to make sure that the roads are well covered and protected against any form of criminal acts."

"And from what I have seen so far, I want to assure the members of the public that our highways are safe to ply anytime of the day. The welfare of the officers are being taken care of by the IGP Arase and we are working round the clocks to make sure that Oyo state is not safe for the criminals," Oyebade added.

While handing over additional working tools to the men to combat crime and criminality on the highway, Oyebade assured them that ‎their welfare would be paramount to his administration as the state's number one security helmsman.