Forests and porous border corridors stretching across Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Ekiti states have become major infiltration routes for bandits and kidnappers entering the South-West, Saturday PUNCH findings have revealed.
Credible sources, including hunters, operatives of the Oodua Peoples Congress and local residents, disclosed that armed groups fleeing military operations in the North were exploiting weak surveillance across forest reserves and boundary communities to launch attacks, abduct residents and escape undetected.
Findings further revealed that the Old Oyo National Park linking Oyo and Kwara states, as well as forests connecting Osun and Ekiti through Imesi-Ile, had become major security threats in the South-West.
According to security operatives, many suspected bandits had been dislodged from the areas.
They lamented that the vast woodland belts supporting farming, hunting and other economic activities had become difficult terrains for security agencies to effectively police, thereby creating opportunities for criminal groups involved in kidnapping, cattle rustling and other violent crimes.
