Bugie Okhuemoi, Special Assistant to Governor Monday Okpebholo on Media and Publicity, has said tackling the rising wave of insecurity in the state requires locating criminal hideouts in forest areas and forcing kidnappers out.
Okhuemoi made this known on Monday, the 12th of January, 2026, during an appearance on The Morning Brief, a Channels Television programme, where he responded to questions on recent kidnappings and general security concerns, particularly around Ekpoma and its environs.
According to the governor’s aide, the current security challenges are not isolated incidents but part of a wider national problem linked to banditry and criminal migration across regions.
He said: “Insecurity is really nothing new. It’s something everybody’s aware of. This is the fallout of the banditry situation that the country has been dealing with generally.
“As they move from the North into the South, as you know, the Okene-Lokoja axis is a very hot flashpoint for all this kidnapping, banditry, and all these other activities.
“Now, these guys move through the forest, and in the forest, it’s not so easy to recognize boundaries. So, we just have a group of criminals who are in the forest and who are very mobile.
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“So, it’s something everybody is aware of. A lot of effort has been put in place to try and curtail the activities of these people, largely identifying their locations in the forest.
“Security issues are not really issues that can be discussed publicly like this, but there are serious strategies on ground, there are serious strategies in place that will be activated very soon.
“In fact, they’ve already been activated, but in a very short while, we’ll see the effect.
“The solution is simple. Identify where the kidnappers are in the forest and dislodge them from there.
“Technology-driven strategies are being implemented and very shortly we’ll see these things come to an end.”
He assured residents that while security operations may not always be discussed openly, decisive measures are already underway and the impact will soon be evident.