Governor Seyi Makide of Oyo state has ordered the demolition on an illegal detention centre uncovered by the Police in Ibadan, the state capital.
Okay.ng understands that Makinde gave this directive on Tuesday during his visit to the scene where 200 inmates were rescued at Ojoo end of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The governor also visited the rehabilitation centre that the inmates are being cared for.
Makinde said in quotes:
“What we have seen is something that we all have to condemn and this shouldn’t be happening in a modern environment. You cant use a mosque as façade to perpetrate this kind of evil.
“Yes we have marked the entire structure for demolition, we have here the ministry of lands and urban planning and ministry of health and justice. The government will do everything that is humanly possible to ensure that this kind of thing is stamped out in our environment.
“But, there are houses around here, these are people, they see something, ideally, they should say something because this kind of things couldn’t have been going on without all of these people, particular residences around here, without them knowing about it. So, they should have reported this thing to the authorities and maybe we would have unravelled this a long time ago.
“And also, we want to encourage our people, the government, the parents and even family members, if you need to rehabilitate member s of your family that are not behaving well, we have government institutions that can do that and we are trying to rehabilitate those places for the people of Oyo state.
“So, whatever is necessary, looking at the laws of our land regarding this kind of thing, we will ensure, we get this place away from those people doing this kind of things within the ambit of the law. And also you have the law enforcement agencies here, all those involved are going to be prosecuted to the full extent of our law.
“For the victims, we have mobilized the ministry of women affairs and social inclusion and the social welfare agencies there. First we need to have immediate palliative for them and then we have to look at the deeper issues and how to resettle them and reunite them with their families, we are not going to leave them alone at this point.”
It can be recalled the Commissioner of Police in the state, Shina Olukolu, speaking to reporters on Monday at the scene disclosed that a 17-year-old escapee from one of the facilities located at Apata area of the state hinted the Police.
The escapee disclosed to the police of the existence of another facility located at the Ojoo area, where hundreds of victims were rescued in an operation that lasted till late Monday evening.
