Residents of Ikole-Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti, yesterday, urged the state government to empower Amotekun corps with weapons and logistics to fight insecurity in the state.
Residents noted that if the Amotekun corps were well equipped, their impact would have been better felt.
They said the available Amotekun personnel was not enough to effectively cover the whole state and, therefore, urged the state government to recruit more hands, with improved salary structure, for the security outfit.
One of the residents, Mr Bayo Ogunjobi, a teacher, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), stressed the need for the state government to empower the security outfit by adding more men and equipping them with necessary logistics to curb kidnapping and other forms of crimes in the state.
Ogunjobi noted that many farmers could no longer visit their farms because of fear of being kidnapped.
Another resident, Mrs Folasade Oni, a trader, said that kidnapping of people in the state had become a booming business for the hoodlums, adding that the ugly trend needed to be addressed quickly.
Mr Godwin Ibrahim, a commercial driver, said the incessant kidnapping of people, especially those in rural communities, has assumed a worrisome dimension and needed urgent intervention by government.
Another resident, Mrs Kehinde Anjorin, a hairdresser, urged the governor-elect, Mr Biodun Abayomi, to give priority to security of lives and property when he assumed office.
Although Anjorin praised the security outfit for doing its best, she, however, said that it still needed more support to aid its efficiency and effectiveness.