Oyo state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adekunle Odude has noted that while there have been a couple of challenges here and there, the Oyo state Police command have generally been on top of the situations to maintain law and order in the state.

He said in an exclusive interview with CEOAfrica in Ibadan on Thursday. He took time to highlight some of the achievements of the Command since his assumption of office as Oyo state CP.

“In the last year we have had a couple of challenges; we have had some very pathetic cases which we were able to break. We had student crisis in Lautech Ogbomosho, Oyo College of Education, The University of Ibadan, and Institute of Agric. Some of them became violent but many of them we talked to them and we were able to resolve it but in all these circumstances there was no student that was injured, everything went well and we were able to resolve the crisis.

“We also had some cases that are highbrow cases, we had some cases of kidnapping and in all the cases the victims were rescued and the suspects were arrested. We had a case in Apata where a couple- with some other people assisting them - arrested another couple who is about almost 80 years old and kept the two of them in the toilet for two weeks. We were able to rescue the victims and arrested the other couple. We were also able to resolve some disputes,” he said.

He added that the police are prepared for the forthcoming election as all available resources are been put in to place to ensure a hitch-free election. He advised the members of the public to continue to see the police as their friends noting that the police cannot work without information.

“We want to encourage members of the public to come up with information that can assist us in whatever we are doing so that we can pick the bad boys from the street. When we came we had some group of boys who are just a gang of thugs and when they are broke they just enter the road and start destroying properties, we arrested over five hundred of them and charged all of them to court. We have had some respite with respect to those kinds of hooligans. The state has been very calm and peaceful,” he affirmed.

He also revealed a cordial relationship with sister-agencies operating in the state.

On the relationship with sister-agencies operating in the state, he stated, “We work very well together, like in information sharing for instance, if you get information that concerns another agency, you quickly let them know and they carry on from there. Like the DSS, if they get information they pass to us and if we get information that is useful on, we work very well together with other security agencies.”