The Ekiti State Government said on Monday that the community leader, Alhaji Abashe Adamu, arrested by the police in the state for alleged kidnapping was never an appointee of Dr Kayode Fayemi administration.

The Commissioner for Information, Akin Omole, said, “While it is true that Alhaji Adamu was a member of the Farmers-herders Peace Committee set up by the state government, he was never a government appointee, but was in the committee as a representative of the herders and a community leader.”

The Ekiti State Police Command said on Sunday that its personnel arrested Adamu and one Toyin Ibrahim on June 29 for allegedly coordinating numerous high-profile kidnappings in the state.

The Information Commissioner, in a statement titled, ‘Omole dissociates Fayemi administration from arrested kidnap suspect’, said the statement credited to the Spokesperson of Bisi Kolawole Campaign Organisation of the Peoples Democratic Party, Lere Olayinka, that Adamu was Fayemi’s political appointee was mischievous.

Omole, who reiterated the Fayemi administration’s commitment to the provision of adequate security to people’s lives and property, said the state government “would continue to ensure that there is no hiding place for criminals in the state.”

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He described the report credited to Olayinka on the recent arrest of two persons at Ido Ekiti for alleged kidnapping as “cheap blackmail and a crude attempt at linking the state government with one of the suspects.

Omole wondered why “the report conveniently omitted the fact that the other suspect, Ibrahim, was a councilor in Ido/Osi Local Government during the illegal tenure of Chief Segun Oni and PDP in the state.”

The commissioner said politicising or trivialising such serious issue might be inimical to the conduct of proper investigations by relevant security agencies as well as apprehending and prosecuting other possible criminals in the state.

Omole, who said that available statistics indicated that rate of kidnapping in the state had witnessed a steady decline since April, solicited the cooperation of all stakeholders in ridding the state of all forms of criminality.