Fight Kidnapping With Job Creation, Edo Govt Told

Ozekhome
Ozekhome

UNUEDO Foundation, has said if the unemployment rate in Edo State was not urgently addressed by the state government, the fight against rising incidents of kidnapping would not be fruitful.

It also called for increased funding of security apparatus in the state, even as it wants the Federal Government to collaborate with the state government on the matter.

In a statement by its President, Chief Lawson Omokhodion, UNUEDO described the recent kidnap of Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), his driver, and Athanasius Ugbome, as an indication of the disturbing rate of unemployment in the state.

He said “UNUEDO notes with grave concern, the recent kidnap of, Chief Ozekhome, his driver, and Ugbome, a chieftain of the state’s chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, by gunmen at the Ehor, on the Benin-Auchi expressway on August 23. The policing and manning of the known volatile routes in Edo and the monitoring of suspected kidnappers must be improved upon.

“While UNUEDO acknowledges the efforts of the state government in fixing the decayed infrastructure, there is need to engage the teeming unemployed youths, with work to reasonably guaranty peace and security of residents.

“Unuedo foundation urges the Edo State Government to check the unbridled activities of kidnappers and armed bandits, who rob, maim, kidnap and extort inhabitants of the state at will, a situation that had restrained indigenes of the state from visiting home for fear of being kidnapped, or robbed by these criminal elements.”

“UNUEDO is pained that the peaceful city of Benin City and the homely Edo State has been violated by the wicked and ungodly acts of kidnappers who have defiled all efforts to call them to order.”