The Nigerian Army has revealed that the newly acquired drones have helped the 32 Artillery Brigade to raid 18 camps of kidnappers in Akure in the last one month.
The drones were launched on June 21 in the fight towards curbing kidnapping and related crimes in Ondo and Ekiti States.
Brig-gen Zakari Abubakar made this known while speaking to news men in Akure on Tuesday.
He said: “On my assumption of office on March 28, 2019, I discovered that cases of kidnapping, robbery, herders and farmers clashes and others were on the increase in Ondo and Ekiti States.
“I discovered that one of the advantages the criminals have is the thick forests that abound in the two states.
“We first established an anti-kidnapp squad which recorded a lot of success. But anytime the kidnappers took their victims to the thick forests, it became very difficult to comb the area.
“There is no way we can perform effectively without the help of technology because the two states have thick forests which the criminals are using as their hideouts.
“So, the drones have helped us tremendously in our operations within one month that we launched it in the two states.
“As at now, 18 different camps had been raided and the arrested suspects had been handed over to the police and other security agencies for proper investigation and prosecution.”
The brigade commander also attributed thw success of the raid to the cooperation of other security agencies.
“We know that there is no where they can hide with the technology we are using now and their days are numbered.
“The only thing that we need is the cooperation of the media and politicians to support the army’s vision and goals,” he said.
