A former director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, has revealed that three of those who kidnapped him in 2017 were serving military officers.
Ejiofor made the revelation Thursday morning during a live AIT Town Hall Meeting with the theme: ‘Kidnappers on Rampage’.
Mr Ejiofor was kidnapped along with his driver between Okene and Obajana in Kogi State at the time, according to him, while he was travelling from Delta State to Abuja.
In an interview he granted afterwards, he said his abductors demanded N30m as ransom and revealed they were not Fulani herders but Fulani gunmen who had nothing to do with cattle rearing.
But, speaking on the inadequate number of security personnel to police the whole country at the AIT town hall forum on Thursday, the former intelligence chief said the police is the lead agency in policing the nation and that it is grossly understaffed and under-funded.
“President Buhari directed 10,000 policemen to be recruited every year but that was not followed, otherwise, by now we would have additional 80,000 personnel in the Force.
“However, even the ones we have, how do we use them effectively,” he said, adding that there are bad eggs among the rank and file of the Police Force.
He went on to mention that during his kidnapping saga a few years ago, three of his abductors were serving military personnel.
“Because they knew me, they (the soldiers) told their (gang) members that ‘this is their oga, they should not assault me’,” Ejiofor said, adding, however, that it did not stop them from collecting ransom before freeing him from captivity.
