The Ondo State Police Command said on Thursday that it had arrested two people suspected to be members of a kidnapping gang terrorising the state.

The suspects, who were identified as Jahae Mohammed and Jimoh Ahmed, were nabbed during a raid on the kidnappers’ den located in a forest in the Oba Akoko/Ose area of the Akoko South East Local Government Area of the state by a team of policemen.

Speaking on the development, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Femi Joseph, said the suspected kidnappers were arrested in the Oba Akoko/Ose area by a police special patrol team.

According to him, the suspects were identified to be the leaders of a kidnappers’ gang terrorising travellers and residents of the area.

The Punch reported that no fewer than 50 people were alleged to have been kidnapped by hoodlums on the Akure-Owo and Owo-Ikare roads in the last two months, among who were members of staff of the Federal Medical Centre and the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, both in Owo.

Joseph said, “The combined team of police formations, led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mudashiru Abudulahai, with other officers and men drawn from the Anti-Kidnapping Squad, Anti-Cultism Squad and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, who searched the forest reserve at Oba Akoko for almost five hours before the arrest was made.

“The exercise took the men and officers of the police patrol team 20 kilometres into the forest reserve along the Oba Akoko/Ose Road, where the team located two points where the kidnappers were operating.