From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
A joint patrol of security personnel in Imo State, including forest guards and vigilantes, paid off on Monday as five suspected kidnappers and bandits were arrested.
The State Commissioner of Police, Aboki Danjuma, had led his men to Avu, Irete, Ihiagwa, and Okpala forests where some of these criminals were apprehended with their guns.
Travellers were stranded at the weekend on Okpala Road in Ngor-Okpala Local Government Area of the state as a result of an alleged Fulani herdsmen attack on them.
An indigene who did not want his name disclosed had claimed that some Fulani herdsmen have been terrorising their area for quite some time.
But another witness, also from that area, had claimed that the criminals disturbing them were mostly from within their community.
Meanwhile, indigenes of Ndegwu and Amakohia-Ubi in Owerri West Council Area of the state have appealed to the security personnel to extend the same operation to their area.
A community member from Amakohia-Ubi said, “We can no longer go to our farms without being afraid of kidnappers, so many people have been kidnapped here and ransom paid, some even were killed.
“We want the police to help us, our people are afraid and we fear if this continues we may have famine because there wouldn’t be any crop to harvest,” the source said.